


Loving You Could Make Jesus Cry

by Jelly_Coco22



Category: Derry Girls (TV)
Genre: ALL THE GOOD STUFF, Bisexual Female Character, Catholic School, Clare being Clare, Dorks in Love, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Humor, James can’t catch a break here either, Lesbian Character, Let’s just dive into it, Love Triangles, Multi, One shots mostly, Recreational Drug Use, Teen Angst, Teen Romance, also, be aware i guess lol, but we love them, for now anyway, general teenage things you know, i dont know what the endgame is either so, idk we'll see, literally dont @ me if your ship isnt interacting for a bit alright? relax, lots of Erin and Orla being good buddies and cousins, not too graphic, theres a love triangle so like, theres going to be like sex and stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2020-03-27 16:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19016341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jelly_Coco22/pseuds/Jelly_Coco22
Summary: Michelle has slowly fallen head over heels for her curly-haired friend and the feeling seems to be mutual, that is until a mysterious girl pops out of nowhere and makes things very, very complicated.





	1. i just kinda wish you were gay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chocolate and other serious matters

It was Monday morning and as insufferable as Monday’s can be, it seemed to be getting worse. The girls were hanging out on the bottom of the school steps and Michelle was sure that Erin and Clare had finally gone mental. She wasn’t sure when exactly it was that they started arguing about whether homework was ‘good for the mind’ or some bullshit and honestly, she’d had enough of it. Sure, she had been tuning most of it out but Michelle had already spent a big chunk of the morning ignoring James when he was going on and on about some nerdy Doctor Who episode, and she was a bit hungover so she was already spent on having to ignore nonsense for the day.

“Seriously, are you two going to be done soon or should I just go ahead and start looking for another group of weirdos to hang out with?” Michelle looked at both of her self-righteous blonde-haired friends and raised one of her penciled-in eyebrows, challenging them to say something back but Erin and Clare were never as quick-witted as Michelle so they simply shared a look and decided not to engage. “I didn’t even know we had homework, Clare you’re gonna let me copy yours later, yeah?”

The smaller of the blondes was about to start preaching to Michelle about how copying off of a creative writing assignment isn’t a very good idea when Orla suddenly appeared from down the hallway and everyone realized they hadn’t seen the taller girl since they got off of the bus. Orla was eating from a small bag of some over-salted looking chips while also simultaneously holding a lollipop between her fingers, just the way she holds cigarettes for her dear Mam Sarah.

“Orla, you couldn’t think to get me some as well?” pouted Erin.

“Aye, I did but I ran out of punts, Erin. I shoved all of them in at once and the vending machine only let me pick one thing. I think it’s broken.” Erin simply rolled her eyes, not feeling up to explaining to her cousin that  _she_ was the one that broke the poor machine and now they will all be snack-less for who knows how long. The rest of the group also took note of this and shared solemn looks between each other as the bell rang. They all stood up and decided to meet up at their usual spot come lunch time and took off to get to class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first half of their classes somehow seemed to draw out slower than Jenny’s “informative” class meetings but now the girls (and boy) were headed to the cafeteria for lunch. Erin was going on about some girl that wore a denim jacket to school instead of her blazer and how that was Erin’s idea first, prompting Clare to add that it was actually their idea. Michelle on the other hand was wondering if downing a couple of shots this morning would’ve helped her drown these other two out. James was trying to ask Orla about an assignment but she kept telling him to repeat his sentences, finding it hard to understand his weird accent.

“For the last time, Orla, my accent’s not Indonesian!” Orla gave James a weird look and simply decided she’d try to decipher his weird dialect later. They were about to get to the cafeteria when they passed a crowd surrounding the vending machines and it seemed to be getting bigger and angrier by the minute.

“How’s a girl supposed to survive without chocolate all day, like!” The girls turned to the owner of the very loud and terrifying voice and all simultaneously went wide eyed when they realized it was Big Mandy herself. They all shared a look and immediately turned around and started on their way into the cafeteria when-

“Oi! Didn’t I see one of ya messing with it this morning?” The girls stopped in their tracks. “You, with the curly hair, I saw you standing here this morning!” Orla turned around along with her group of friends and was about to speak when she was suddenly cut off by Michelle.

“Aye, it was James!” Every single person turned to look at Michelle and she internally cursed at herself and her inability to think before she speaks. She pulled a very startled James by the arm so that he was standing beside her and slapped him on the shoulder. “Come on now, dickface, fess up!”

“It wasn’t me! I don’t even like any of that nasty sugary stuff!” The wee English fella was about to have another emotional breakdown when Big Mandy spoke up.

“I was actually talking about the curly haired girl, not the uh, other curly haired girl,” she said as she shot James an agitated look. Orla was again about to speak up when Michelle shoved Erin and gave her a rushed look.

“Orla’s got high cholesterol so it couldn’t have been her!” Erin finally spoke up having gained the courage to look Big Mandy in the eyes and... was she looking a bit more Schizo than usual? The blonde found that all of the courage she had suddenly gained to defend her dear cousin was now fading and she looked at Michelle for some help. Michelle was too overcome with fear herself when Clare finally started blabbering. Seriously, that girl’s anxiety can either be really unhelpful at times or seriously help them out of trouble every now and then. Was it going to be helpful this time? They can never tell.

“It wasn’t any of us! We’re all doing a fast for the starving African kids! We haven’t had anything to eat in the past 15 hours and I can’t really see any shapes right now to be frank so even if we did want to eat anything from the vending machine I’m not sure that we would even be able to see where it is so...” Clare realized she had been talking at an inhuman speed so she stopped and looked around at everyone around her. Her friends had the usual looks of confusion and concern, while everyone else simply looked at her like she had just downed an entire jar of peanut butter by herself (that’s just a figure of speech, I promise).

“Jesus Clare, can you warn us next time you’re about to have another cack attack?” Michelle quickly scolded Clare and turned to face Big Mandy once more. "Look, before you go all King Kong on all of us, at least hear us out, yeah?” Big Mandy didn't say a word, now making slow and heavy steps towards the group. She stopped once she came up right in front of Michelle, waiting for someone to speak but everyone was too afraid to say anything except...

“Aye, the vending machine wasn’t broken when I used it this morning, do you mind this morning, Erin?” The entire hallway was quiet aside from a couple of “oohs” and a few gasps. Big Mandy pushed the girls aside to get closer to the tallest girl of the group, who surprisingly was not too far off from her eye level. Orla stared back unfazed until she slowly came to realize she was in a bit of trouble.

“So it was you?”

Orla had no chance to even think of a reply before someone in the crowd started shouting.

“Fight, fight, fight!” The girls quickly broke out of their stupor and took action. Michelle grabbed Orla by the hand and pulled her back behind the group while Erin and the rest of the girls stood in front of her in a protective manner that was honestly anything but intimidating.

A very nervous Erin was the one to speak up first. “So here’s the thing, you can start knocking our heads together right now or we can figure this out. There’s more than enough chocolate in the world to go around but I’m afraid there’s only one Orla for us and my Ma will kill me if anything happens to her.” Big Mandy didn’t even think about the proposition (at least mull it over, seriously) and kept her gaze on Orla as she stepped forward to grab Orla by the collar of her blazer when Michelle viciously smacked her hand away. Clare turned to look at Michelle like she had just smacked Jesus Christ himself.

“Michelle! What did you just do?!"

Michelle’s expression turned into one of anger and a little bit of fear (don’t tell anyone), but Michelle is also one of the few people who don’t get intimidated by Finnoula so this shouldn’t be much different, right? It’s just a much bigger, taller Finnoula that doesn’t smell like vinegar and grease. She hyped herself up and took a deep breath.

“Look, I will bring you loads of chocolate every single morning until they fix the fuckin’ machine, yeah? I’m talking _tons_ , stacks of it. Just back off, go climb up your giant beanstalk and I’ll bring the first stash tomorrow.” Everyone in the hallway collectively held their breath. Big Mandy glared at Michelle and then back to Orla and then the rest of the girls.

“Just as long as you keep your word then,” and that was it. Big Mandy walked off, parting the dispersing crowd of catholic girls like the Red Sea, leaving the girls both astonished and relieved. They sat down on their usual hangout spot on the stairs and sighed in unison. Michelle still pumping with adrenaline, started wringing her fingers and uncontrollably bouncing her leg, the rest of the girls noticed this and shared a look.

“You know, I think you might’ve just earned yourself some serious street cred, standing up to Big Mandy like that,” Erin said playfully and nudged Michelle, who couldn’t help but snort at Erin’s horrible attempt to cheer her up. The tension slowly left the girls and they all sat quietly, taking in the sound of the loud cafeteria and the very intense event that had just transpired. A few minutes passed, and the comfortable ambience was cut short.

“You know Michelle, I don’t think you really needed to pledge to bring her ‘stacks’ of chocolate. You could’ve just offered to bring her one bar every single day,” said James as he looked around at the girls, suddenly making Michelle aware of what could’ve been an avoidable inconvenience. She realized he was right, why did she even say that? “Stacks” of chocolate? She could’ve saved herself some serious cash. Michelle decided to not give this any more thought though, she just turned to him and gave him one of her usual scowls.

“Shut your hole, dickface.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday morning came around and the girls wandered around Pete’s Wee Shop, rummaging their way through the small store for their favorite candy and inspecting it to see if it was stale, which was unfortunately a routine they had learned to do over the years. Clare and James were marveling at some new container full of candy they had never seen before and wondered if they should really risk spending their money on some weird candy that might not even be worth it. Erin was already done picking her snacks for the morning and was following Orla around, who was still snooping around even though she had her own baggie stuffed full of the weirdest combinations of candy that can’t possibly taste good mixed together like that. Michelle on the other hand was waiting for her friends to hurry up and finish. As soon as she walked into the shop, she gathered as much chocolate as she could afford for the day and wondered how much longer she would have to do this. She had personally asked Sister Michael to please make sure someone was onto fixing the vending machine but she’s not sure the nun had even heard her, as she just waved Michelle off and proceeded to giggle at her copy of Stephen King’s _It_.

The dark-haired girl mentally made the math of how many bottles of vodka she could’ve bought instead with all this wasted money. She was starting to come up with the theory that Big Mandy is so massive because of all the chocolate she probably consumes. There has to be some science behind that, she pondered. Her thoughts were interrupted as the girls made their way towards her, laughing about some silly thing the store owner had said to them. They made their way to the bus stop and went about their usual antics while they waited for the bus to show up. While Clare and Erin had started ranting about something school related, Orla startled Michelle out of her thoughts and tapped her on the shoulder. Observant honey-doused eyes peered into startled blue-green eyes, and Michelle wasn’t sure if Orla had really giggled just now or if her mind had made that up somehow. The tall curly-haired girl seemed to be having a million thoughts rushing through her head, but none of them came out of her mouth. Michelle suddenly felt vulnerable, like the girl in front of her was trying to read her mind or something, and decided to break up whatever was going on. She forcefully reached into Orla's paper bag stuffed full of candy and abruptly pulled out a handful of sweets out of the bag, shoving as many as she could into her mouth.

“D'ya mind? 'M tryin' to eat somethin' 'ere.” Michelle tried very hard to sound those words out but sadly they came out muffled and she was secretly trying not to choke right now. Seriously, how many different kinds of candy is this girl putting in her bag? Orla finally broke eye contact and glanced down at her bag of sweets, grabbing a handful and carefully dropping a few into her mouth while she looked around at nothing in particular. Michelle noticed how quickly the taller girl’s aura had changed but decided not to think much of it since the girl is known for being so odd.

“I’d been wanting to say thank you for saving me from Big Mandy and her massive gorilla hands, but I kept forgetting.” Michelle snorted at Orla’s phrasing, only to realize the tall girl wasn’t laughing with her and was being completely serious.

“Oh I mean, yeah sure that’s no bother. I honestly was just trying to stop her from going all ‘hulk smash’ on the entire school, Clare was shittin’ herself as it was.” Orla appeared to be trying to analyze Michelle once again and this time it was starting to irritate the dark-haired girl, she couldn't figure out what the deal was. “Look, I’m not one to get sappy and neither are you so just move on, alright? You’ve said your thanks so just keep it moving, Curly.” Orla furrowed her eyebrows at Michelle, taken aback by the sudden hostility, but she remembered who she was talking to and shrugged it off. She reached into her blazer pocket and pulled out a bag stuffed full of candy, holding it out for Michelle to take. The shorter girl tentatively took it and looked up at Orla with a questioning look.

“I don’t know what candy you fancy so I put a little bit of everything in there, I call it 'Unicorn Vomit'.” The taller girl fished around her pocket once more, this time pulling out a massive lollipop (seriously, how did that fit in there?) and started trying to unwrap it with her teeth as she walked off to line up as the bus rounded the corner. Michelle frowned at the small paper bag, it was so full that it was a small tear away from falling apart. James noticed his cousin had been quiet for a while which was unusual for her and made his way towards her.

“How much longer do you think you’ll have to keep this going?” Michelle was staring intently at the bag of candy in her hand that James had gestured to, still distraught. The sound of her classmates being rowdy caused her to finally look up and she caught a glimpse of long golden-brown curls boarding the bus.

“I’m not sure.”


	2. you’re the one that i want

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> peaches, grease and leather jackets

“Jesus fuck Erin, how many times do I have to tell you, no one else is gonna be wearing a dress to the damn party!” Michelle was starting to get frustrated so she stood up and headed over to Erin’s bedroom window, looking for something more interesting to get distracted by. This was the third outfit the gang had been forced to sit down and give critiques on and they were all pretty tired of it. Not only was it weird, Erin also happens to take an eternity to change.

“Look Michelle, if you’re afraid I’m going to outshine the rest of ya, you just have to say so.” The girls couldn’t help but scoff at this, while their friend was very beautiful, yes, they were also very aware that this party they were about to attend was at Jenny Joyce’s house. Oh, and the theme also happened to be ‘Grease.’

“No, I’m just worried you’re gonna end up looking like a fuckin’ cone is all it is,” Michelle finished off with an exasperated sigh and finally gave up. She walked over to her bag and fished around for a bit before pulling out a small bottle of peach Smirnoff.

“Michelle, what on God’s good Earth do you think you’re doing?!”

“Calm your tits Clare, you’ll give yourself a nosebleed. I’m just pre-gaming a bit, and blondie over there is already giving me a headache.” The dark-haired girl then proceeded to take swigs straight from the bottle with experienced ease, she may as well have been drinking Coca-Cola. The girls, having known Michelle for years, had become so used to this that it was practically routine. The girls turned back to face Erin, well, just the sober ones, and were reminded of the dilemma at hand once again.

“You know Erin, maybe you should just stick to the theme, it’ll look a bit funny if we show up together and you’re the only one wearing a dress.” James, being one of the more sensible ones of the group, tried to reason with Erin. He was hoping that maybe Erin was going to give this up soon, the party was going to start soon and he doesn’t believe in being fashionably late. He had given the girls a very boring talk earlier about how ‘a guest should never be late, as it is rude and irresponsible,’ seriously what a dose...

“Not as funny as your hair,” Orla’s voice rose from the back of the room where she was sitting on the floor, inspecting a gel container almost the size of her head. Michelle almost choked on what one could only guess was her fifth shot by now and hurriedly reached for one of Erin’s shirts that was lying around to wipe her chin with.

“I’m sticking to the theme Orla, that’s why my hair is greased.” James began explaining to Orla why his usually curly hair was now sleeked back Danny Zuko style, but he stopped once he realized she wasn’t listening.

“She’s right, it looks like a giant slug took a slimy shit on your head.” Most of the girls groaned at the gross but expected gross comment from Michelle, except for Orla. The curly-haired girl’s eyes were still fixated on the hair gel container but Michelle didn’t miss the grin that slowly made itself home on Orla’s lips. The room was now unusually quiet and Michelle realized she had been staring at her taller friend so she quickly took another drink of vodka and went back to staring out the window. Clare, on the other hand, had been running out of patience for a while now and she suddenly stood up from her seat on Erin’s bed.

“I’ve had enough of this. Erin, you have to change. Look at us! We look amazing but we won’t look as good if we show up without our Sandy!” Clare knew well enough that if you want Erin to do something for you, you have to flatter the shoes off of that girl. Everyone else noticed what Clare was doing and they went along with it.

“Aye, look at us, Erin, massive rides. You know you want to join in on this.” Michelle gestured to the rest of the group (to herself mostly) and then struck one of her usual cocky poses. A smile slowly crept onto Erin’s face and she finally gave in, she quickly left the room to change into something more appropriate for the occasion but not before making a cringe-inducing Grease related pun. The girls were now content with the new plan and they proceeded to check themselves out on Erin’s bedroom mirror as they talked about who or what they might find at the party. Once Erin was ready, they grabbed their things and got ready to head downstairs and hitch a ride from Gerry to the party.

Michelle flicked at James’ head as she passed him down the stairs, “By the way, pretty sure you were supposed to use actual grease on your hair, not a firm hold gel, dickface.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun was almost gone by the time they arrived at Jenny Joyce’s “absolute monster of a house” according to Clare. The girls filed out of the car and practically ignored Gerry’s sad attempt at giving them a curfew as they walked away, completely hypnotized by the house. They slowly walked up the pathway of the very big and beautiful lawn leading up to the house. There was colorful neon lights flooding out from inside the house and Jenny seemed to already have the Grease mega-mix going. There was fairy lights draped all over the lawn, on the lounge chairs and intertwined on the railings of the second floor. There was already small groups of teenagers hanging about, boys clad in leather jackets and denim jeans, and girls in pastel button ups and poofy skirts. The girls made their way up the entire pathway and were greeted by Jenny once they were in the house. There was a gigantic disco ball hanging from the ceiling in the main room, blasting sharp shards of bright light into the already neon lit room, and it was cleared of everything except for a lit up Saturday Night Fever-style dance floor that already seemed to be packed full of people dancing on it. Erin looked around at the huge crowds of people and was so relieved she didn’t show up wearing some dull dress. She had decided to dress up as one of the Pink Ladies, to match with Michelle who was very adamant from the start that she had called dibs on her personal idol, Rizzo. Clare went with a more Sandy-inspired look, while James and Orla dressed up as members of the T-Birds. The wee English fella had tried to explain to Orla that he had called dibs on Danny Zuko but was quickly shut down by the tall girl who told him she just really looked amazing in leather and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to show everyone up.

“You know, James, just because Orla wore leather pants doesn’t mean that you had to as well, you could’ve just worn jeans,” Clare couldn’t stifle her laughter.

“Just realizing that now, thanks Clare.”

The girls headed to the snack room to grab themselves some drinks, and Orla’s chocolate brown orbs immediately landed on a huge cotton candy machine in the middle of the room. She slowly shuffled her combat boots towards it, so very cautiously, almost as if the cotton candy machine would get startled and run off if she made any sort of sudden movement. The girls gave her the usual concerned look and proceeded to walk around looking for snacks and drinks they might like. Clare and James were fixated on a gigantic fruit punch fountain, they stared at it with looks of astonishment and a little bit of fear. Erin and Michelle made a few rounds of the room and ended up getting distracted by a humongous ice sculpture of the car from ‘Greased Lightning.’ Who asks for that but most importantly, who pays for that sort of thing? Surely, money was no object for Jenny and her family so the girls shrugged it off and walked towards some other tables. While they started picking out some snacks, Michelle couldn’t help but roll her eyes once Erin started moping about how David hadn’t shown up to the party. The dark-haired girl realized Erin wasn’t going to give it up anytime soon, so she grabbed a seat for Erin and herself and began to eat some of her snacks while she pretended to be listening to her slightly self-absorbed friend. A few minutes later she was chewing on a piece of some very fancy chocolate as she scanned the room when she caught a glimpse of Orla by herself at the cotton candy machine. The curly-haired girl now had strands of pastel pink and baby blue cotton candy strung about on her Spice Girls-inspired buns, all over her arms and tangled all around her hands but she somehow kept going for more. A small strain of pink cotton candy that was on her head fell down onto her forehead and Orla looked up at it with a frown. Michelle couldn’t fight the smile caused by the taller girl’s facial expression.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t think my non-existent love life was so entertaining to you!” Michelle snapped her eyes back to Erin and was immediately annoyed again.

“Ach, my bad, Erin. You’re right, it’s not entertaining. Actually, if you hadn’t noticed, your boring fuckin’ stories are putting me to sleep. I need a drink.”

Michelle grabbed her bag and headed over to a dimly lit corner of the room, and once she was sure Jenny wouldn’t catch her, she retrieved her vodka bottle out of her bag and took a few drinks. The alcohol hadn’t been making its effect as fast as Michelle wanted it to so she decided to down the bottle instead and threw the now empty bottle back into her bag. She felt a slight burn but quickly cleared her throat and shook it off. The music had gotten louder in the main room, and she could hear different sorts of conversations going on around her. The fairy lights in the snack room were slowly getting shinier and blurry and Michelle’s face was now slightly blushed. She looked around the room and saw her friends had regrouped and were sitting around a small table, laughing their hearts out. A fourth person was missing and a slightly dizzy Michelle furrowed her eyebrows as she looked around the room again, and she found Orla still standing at the cotton candy machine, except someone else was standing next to her this time. Michelle squinted to try to get a better view of who it was and all she could see in the dimly lit room was that it was some random guy, and he was standing a little too close to Orla. The dark-haired girl felt another slight burn but it wasn’t in her throat this time, it was in her chest. She kept glaring across the room, trying to figure out why she suddenly cared that this random guy was smiling as he spoke to Orla, and why Michelle’s breathing got heavier when he pulled a strand of cotton candy away from Orla’s hair. “The fuck?”

Before she knew it, Michelle was making her way around the tables and chairs scattered around room, speeding up her pace as she got closer to her target. She stumbled around a little and kicked a chair away from her when it almost tripped her, causing the few people in the room to look over at Michelle. “What’s all this? Orla’s who’s your new friend here?” Erin stood up from her table across the room, recognizing the way Michelle raised her voice and the tone that came with it. Orla kept her gaze on the inebriated girl in front of her, wondering what she was playing at and how she got so drunk so fast.

“His name’s Charlie, he goes to church with us sometimes.”

“Oh, an altar boy? That’s fuckin’ class isn’t it? What brings you here then, Charlie? Huge fuckin’ fan of cotton candy, are ya?” Michelle took a step closer to the slightly intimidated boy, and although her voice was laced in it’s usual playful tone, her eyes were staring daggers into his eyes. Michelle was about to speak again when Erin finally got to her and grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Maybe we should go outside for a bit, yeah? We were all about to go get some fresh air, come with us, Michelle.” Erin knew better than to try to argue with her best friend when she was drunk and fired up, she had come to learn over time to take a more gentle approach at trying to calm her down. A few seconds passed by with no response from anyone, Erin held Michelle by the arm as she looked back at Clare and James still sitting at the table, giving them a look telling them she had it under control and for them to start heading out. Meanwhile, Michelle and Orla had been staring at each other for a while now, and when Erin looked back at them, they seemed to having an entire conversation with just their eyes. No one was sure what to say, until Charlie finally spoke up.

“I’m gonna head out.” Erin was the only one to acknowledge him and nodded at him as he started to walk off. The blonde started rubbing Michelle’s back, feeling the soft satin of her friend’s pink jacket run along her fingers.

“Clare and James are bound to start freaking out soon, you know those two aren’t much for being left alone at parties.” The dark-haired girl finally looked over at Erin, and the blonde noticed the hesitation in the brunette’s face. “We’ll meet up with you guys in a bit.”

That seemed to be enough and Michelle was off. Erin watched her leave through the sliding doors leading to the front lawn and she turned her attention to Orla.

“All that cotton candy, you’re gonna make yourself boke.” Erin’s attempt to make her cousin laugh went unnoticed and suddenly, Orla was walking away from the blonde.

“Woah alright, I was just joking around, where are you going?” She followed Orla into the main room and pushed through crowds of people, almost losing sight of her until she saw her making her way up the stairs so Erin quickened her pace and followed Orla into a room on the second floor. She found her cousin standing on the balcony, leaning against the railing and looking up at the sky. The silver moon was hidden behind some clouds, the rest of the sky was dark with shades of indigo and sprinkled with stars, some of them very bright and beautiful and others slightly dull and dim but they were stunning all the same. Erin joined in, deciding not to disturb the silence. The music was still playing, laughter would swivel its way towards them every now and then from the small crowds of teens below, and both girls found the cool night air a bit calming. The party inside the house was loud and hectic while everything outside was quiet and serene, and Orla found herself feeling the same.

“She does that a lot.” Orla’s soft voice broke the silence and Erin looked over at her cousin, confused by what she had just said. She followed the taller girl’s gaze down onto the front lawn below them and to their group of friends, and she was looking at Michelle.

“Aye, she does.” Erin has spent the better part of her life figuring her cousin out and deciphering her odd way of saying things, so she came to the conclusion that the curly-haired girl was referring to Michelle’s heavy drinking habits. The blonde kept her gaze on Orla and waited for her to finish her thought, but the girl didn’t say anything else. She didn’t follow up with any other sort of comment or observation, she just kept looking at Michelle. Erin wondered what it was that Orla was so fixated on, but she knew better than to overthink anything her cousin does, so she shrugged it off and went back to observing her friends. The group was sitting down on the grass, and Clare and James seemed to be deep into some sort of argument. Whatever it was about, it must’ve been funny because Michelle, being as shitfaced as she was, was doubled over holding her stomach and laughing so hard that she ended up splayed out on the grass. “We oughta head down there before she gives herself a nosebleed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What’s all this about?” Erin asked and waited for practically anyone to answer as she sat down on the grass next to Michelle who was still lying on her back and staring up at the sky, giggling like an idiot. The blonde turned to Clare and noticed she was trying very hard not to laugh.

“It’s just,” and she was cut off by Michelle as she started laughing her head off again, causing Clare to join in. Erin gave both of the girls funny looks and wondered if Michelle had finally bullied Clare into drinking some of her vodka this time. James was the only one not laughing and was actually looking a little solemn.

“I tripped and dropped my entire slice of cake into the water fountain.”

“I’m sorry James but that’s actually quite funny.” The group burst into huge bouts of laughter and it eventually subsided into a comfortable silence. They all sat amongst each other, playing with grass, singing off-key and finger drumming along to whatever song was playing inside the house. Michelle was still lying down, her head was turned to its side as she stared at something in the distance. Orla was across the lawn as she had decided to wander around earlier rather than rejoin the group when Erin did. She was inquisitively staring at a massive bush of Azaleas, slowly circling around them and carefully caressing a petal every now and then. Michelle’s vision was far gone by now, the bright red azaleas were basically glowing and the fairy lights were blinding. Everything was a blurry, colorful mess except for the one thing she never lost focus of, and almost as if she’d sensed her staring, Orla’s eyes darted to look up at Michelle lying down across the lawn. The dark-haired girl could’ve sworn someone had punched her in the chest just then, she felt as if some giant asshole of an elephant had made itself at home and sat down on her lungs. Her eyes instinctively shut so tight she started seeing stars and that’s when she heard a familiar voice.

“Are you okay?” Michelle opened her eyes the slightest bit to find Orla standing above her, beautiful brown eyes wide with concern. The bright and hazy stars Michelle had been seeing were now floating all around Orla, there was an Azalea placed behind the curly-haired girl’s ear which was glowing brighter than the sun, and the tall girl was now peering down at the weird faces Michelle was making

“Gonna need a minute,” was the only thing Michelle could strain out. James patted the grass next to him and Orla swiftly joined him in the circle. The group quickly started up conversation and were now laughing at some silly thing that had happened earlier involving some clumsy girl and a huge bowl of chips. Michelle felt everything spinning around her, she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, hoping it would stop her from throwing up when a tug at one of her boots caused her to sit up on her elbows. Across from her sat Orla, looking down at Michelle’s black leather boot as she carefully tied the undone shoe laces. The dark-haired girl held a perplexed look on her face until big brown orbs moved to look up at her. Michelle let out a groan and threw herself back onto the grass.

Time quickly slipped into the late hours of the night and the breeze was now a few degrees colder. The girls were some of the few people left on the lawn as the rest of the teenagers had gone inside to escape the cold.

“How much longer do you think they’ll keep blasting that Grease Megamix, it’s doing my head in.”

“What doesn’t do your head in, Clare?”

“There’s actually quite a lot, Michelle, like you know, music that hasn’t been playing on repeat for the past 3 hours and such.” Erin sensed there was going to be a lot more banter coming in so she put a stop to it before Michelle could answer with some clever yet rude remark about Clare.

“We should start heading home, I told my Ma we’d be home before midnight.” Everyone started getting up and gathering their things, except for Michelle who was struggling to get up, she was swaying on all fours and holding onto the grass for dear life. Erin was aware of the kind of treatment her rebellious friend gets from her Ma when she goes home drunk so came up with an idea and walked over to her friend to help her up. “You’re sleeping over at my house tonight.”

“Wha- well, can I come with?” Michelle was now leaning on Erin (a little more than she actually needed to) for support but that didn’t stop her from roughly shoving James by the shoulder.

“For fuck’s sake, James can you stop being clingy for five fuckin’ seconds?” Clare realized she was now the only one left out of this last minute sleepover and she also wasn’t much for being alone in the dark, not that she was afraid of it, you know, she just doesn’t fancy it is all.

“Well, if you’re all going then so am I! Absolutely no way I’m walking home alone at this hour.” Both Erin and Michelle simultaneously rolled their eyes and started on their walk home followed by their small group of very impressionable friends.

“Bunch of pussies.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Michelle you’re gonna need to stop dragging your feet and stop stepping on my foot or I’m letting you walk the rest of the way on your own.” The dark-haired girl chuckled at this and took a swig of a small miniature bottle of vodka. “Jesus Christ, are you seriously still drinking?”

“Oh relax, will you? Look, I’ve already finished it.”

“Alright, nope. I’m not doing this, have fun tripping over yourself all the way home,” and with that, she took Michelle’s arm off of her and walked ahead to keep up with Clare and James who were starting to leave them behind.

“Suit yourself then! I can walk on my own and I definitely don’t need you-,” Michelle was unable to finish her sentence as she was abruptly cut short by a street curb that had gone unnoticed by the girl until now that she had made contact with it. “Fuck me, I’m lucky I’ve got such a nice ass otherwise that would’ve hurt a lot worse, and since when has this shit been here anyway?!” Michelle kept blabbering to herself about how stupid street curbs are and how “unsafe” they actually are as she made the effort to get up and keep walking when she was suddenly lifted off of the ground.

“I think that the curb’s been there for at least a couple of weeks now but I can’t be too sure.” Michelle quickly realized that her taller friend was carrying her bridal-style, completely unfazed.

“What are you on about, Orla? Put me down now!”

“You’ll get left behind if I do and I’m pretty sure a bridge troll lives around these parts and I’m the worst at solving riddles.”

“There’s no bridge around here, Orla, you’re mental. Not only that but trolls don’t fuckin’ exist, now put me down.” The shorter girl tried to pry herself free to no avail. “Mother of God, when did you get so damn strong?”

“My step aerobics instructor says we need to rebuild the core from the ground up so I’ve been doing a lot of push-ups in Aunt Mary’s garden.”

“Why not just do them inside your house?”

“Because there’s no soil inside my house, silly.” Michelle was left with more questions than answers but she decided to leave it at that. She looked ahead to see they were trailing behind the rest of her friends who were collectively kicking a rock down the sidewalk, meanwhile Orla kept her eyes on the sidewalk and seemed to be concentrating on not tripping. Michelle had never physically been this close to Orla, and she found herself staring at the taller girl’s features. The way her observant eyes would glow every time they passed a street light, her perfectly chiseled cheekbones, the freckles peppered on her face, and finally her rosy lips. It suddenly felt like she had been staring for an eternity, and the shorter girl felt frustration and an agonizing sadness all at once, a very new feeling she was starting to get tired of.

“You smell like peaches,” the taller girl scrunched her nose, “and hand sanitizer.” Michelle was startled out of her daze and quickly diverted her gaze away from Orla.

“It’s the vodka, sorry.”

“Oh it’s no bother, I like it.” Michelle laughed at this, it was a weird thing to say, even for Orla. A few minutes passed and the shorter girl suddenly felt the other girl’s breath on her neck. Confused, she looked up to find smoldering brown eyes intently looking at her... lips?

“What are-”

“Oi! We’re locking the both of you out if you don’t hurry it up!” Both of the girls looked up, startled by Erin’s yelling and realized their group of friends were nowhere to be seen and were now around the corner heading down towards Erin’s house. Neither of them noticed when it was exactly that Orla had stopped walking or how long they had been standing under a streetlight just staring at each other like something off of a dumb and cheesy rom-com Erin and James would probably cry to. Both girls cleared their throat and Orla proceeded to catch up with the rest of the group while Michelle kept looking ahead of them and tried to hide the very prominent blush on her face from the girl currently carrying her. They quickly arrived at Erin’s house with Orla not even breaking a sweat and Michelle wondered how extensive this girl’s workout really is. The taller girl made her way up the path on the front lawn of her cousin’s house and gently put Michelle down at the front door, she put her hand on the door handle to open it and go join the others inside when she suddenly stopped with a bemused look on her face.

“Oh, right,” and before Michelle could question what was happening, soft lips carefully met with her cheek in a chaste kiss. Michelle was stunned to say the least and both girls stared at each other as smiles slowly grew on their faces and they each exhaled breaths they had been holding in. Michelle wondered if she should return the favor and was in the process of leaning in when...

“Are both of you done yet? I’m going downstairs to lock the door soon and I’m not letting you in if you’re still out there.” Both girls looked up to find Erin looking down at them from the second-story window.

“We’ll be right in, cock block!”

“Actually, in this case the correct term would be ‘Twat Swat’, thank you very much!” Erin finished her sentence off with an aggressive shut of her window as Michelle flipped her off. Orla offered her hand for Michelle to take and they shared a look before making their way into the house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Michelle was awakened by some extremely bright rays of sunlight making their way in through Erin’s improperly shut bedroom curtains. Sure, she was used to being the first one to wake up most of the time but she was really planning on sleeping through most of her hangover. She groggily got up from her sleeping spot on the floor and clumsily tried to weave her way through her other friends who were still asleep on the floor. It was mostly a success, except she did trip and step on James’ hand but he was asleep and he didn’t feel it therefore it doesn’t count. Michelle shut the curtains and once the room was dim enough, she decided she could go back to sleep, but right as soon as she was going to make her way back to her spot, she noticed something was off. Erin was the only one sleeping on her bed, Orla wasn’t with her as usual and Michelle quickly scanned the rest of the room trying to find some trace of the girl to no avail. She came to the conclusion that Orla had probably headed over to her mom’s earlier and it made her chest hurt a little and not in the good way, like when Orla stares at her like she knows all the secrets of the world and is waiting for Michelle to say them to her. Michelle realized she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep so she quietly made her way downstairs and found Granda Joe in the kitchen making a whole breakfast buffet as usual.

“Mornin’ love, why don’t you have a seat and help yourself.”

“Right I will, can’t resist your cooking. Shit’s better than my Ma’s but don’t tell her I said that, alright?” The older man chuckled at the girl’s foul language as he poured her a glass of orange juice.

“Scout’s honor.”

“Also, would you happen to know where Orla went? Couldn’t find her upstairs.”

“Aye, she took off earlier to her step aerobics class. She should be back by two.” Michelle couldn’t help the smile that crept onto her face, she wasn’t sure what she was afraid would happen but she was a bit relieved now. She made her way to her usual seat at the table and her heart almost gave out when she found the red azalea Orla wore last night neatly placed on the table. “Did you have something to say to her, love?”

“I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write them in a party setting and a Jealous Michelle so here’s this, also Erin may or may not know what’s going on between these two, I think realistically she’d obviously notice one of her closest friends and her cousin being gay so yeah. Kinda got stuck while writing this for a hot minute but yay I did it, still trying to work on doing more dialogue and I think writing this kind of helped me find certain characters voices so to speak. Anyway I hope you enjoy it, give me one shot ideas if you have any, I’m open for anything.


	3. seeing you got ritualistic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the one where the girls get to go to Paris

“You have to actually pack clothes or you’ll only be wearing that hideous jumpsuit on the entire trip, Orla. You can’t walk around Paris looking like you just got done parachuting.”

Orla laid back on Erin’s bed, wearing an obnoxiously neon green jumpsuit and looked at the ceiling, deep in thought.

“Why do they call Paris ‘the city of love’?” Erin rolled her eyes as she tried stuffing more of her clothes into an already packed suitcase.

“Because it’s romantic, Orla. Couples go on walks through the streets, there’s pretty water fountains and tiny restaurants all over the place.”

Orla wrapped her index finger around one of her long curls and started twirling it, looking at it with concentration and a bit of confusion.

“But we also have that here in Derry.”

The blonde laughed it off, this being the first time she had ever heard anyone compare her little old Derry to the wonderful and romantic Paris.

“Well, the one thing we don’t have is an Eiffel Tower, so I think Paris has us beat.” Erin took a seat on her bed next to her cousin and stared out of her bedroom window, daydreaming about what the tower of love must look like in person.

“What’s so romantic about a giant metal pyramid, anyway?” Orla turned to look at Erin who was now staring back at her incredulously. Before Erin could explain to Orla that the Eiffel Tower was more of a tower than a pyramid, Erin’s bedroom door swung open so hard the door knob hit the wall and created a slightly bigger crater where there already was a hole. Erin’s face quickly turned to one of fear and anger as she stood up and began inspecting the damage.

“By god, Michelle, can you stop barging in here like that. One more of those and you’ll crack a hole on the wall bigger than the one on your mouth.”

Michelle gave her blonde friend one of her ‘don’t give a fuck’ smiles and sauntered in and sat down on the bed next to Orla, James and Clare followed suit and they sat down on the foot of the bed, giving Erin an apologetic look. Really, they know better than to let Michelle be the one to make the entrances first, she can be a little heavy handed.

A bright pink pair of shorts laid about on the floor caught Clare’s attention and she picked them up and held them up as if she was inspecting something off of a crime scene.

“Are you seriously still not done packin’, Erin?”  
The taller blonde snatched the shorts from her nosy friend’s hand and threw them into her very messy closet.

“No, Clare, I’m obviously not done. Sometimes a girl needs a couple of hours to get her whole wardrobe together.”

“I understand, Erin but also, at the same time we’re not doing a fashion week run show so can we get on with it for Christ sake!” Clare exasperatedly rushed over to Erin’s closet and started throwing whatever she could get her hands on into the open suitcases laid about all over the room. James was hit by a shirt or two and after he ripped them off of his face, he sat on the floor and started carefully folding the clothing currently raining onto him and placing it neatly into Erin’s suitcases.

Michelle on the other hand, found the sight quite amusing and realized that next time she’ll just pretend to not have her things packed in time so her caring but slightly dim-witted friends will have to do it for her. A huff of air escaped through her nostrils when a bra landed on James’ head and he quickly hurled it away from him, landing on Orla’s face. The tall girl didn’t seem to react to this, and Michelle wondered if she was sleeping. Dainty fingers with chipped black nail polished nails slowly pried the bra away from Orla’s face, which kept its peaceful expression and her eyes remained closed. The bra was quickly slung towards no particular part of the room, to Erin’s dismay, and Michelle fully turned towards her friend sprawled out next to her. The only sound in the room was that of clothing being shuffled about and thrown and Erin’s frustrated huffing every now and then. Michelle noticed how soundly Orla was breathing, her chest slowly rising and falling at its own tempo, a freckled cheek twitched every now and then. When the green eyed girl lifted a finger and tentatively tapped the sleeping girl on her perfectly sculpted nose, Michelle’s breathing stopped as brown eyes slowly opened and looked around at the ceiling, as if searching for something, before finding Michelle. Rosy lips drew back into a lazy smile, and a long slender finger rose up to tap Michelle on her own nose.

“You can sleep all you want on the way to Paris, Curly.”

“I plan on not sleeping during the entire trip, which is why I’m taking as many naps as I can right now.” Michelle furrowed her nicely shaped eyebrows, letting a small laugh escape from her lips.

“You can’t not sleep all weekend, Orla. You trying to do yourself in?”

“Of course I can, Paris is the city that never sleeps.”

“I’m not quite entirely sure that’s the correct city but that does sound pretty cracker.”

Both girls shared a nod, smiling at each other. James was the one to break the comfortable silence that had fallen upon them, getting up to carry Erin’s suitcases downstairs.

“Alright, off we go then.” The girls got up and started making their way out. Erin took off and dragged Clare behind her, blabbering about what they should do and see once they arrive in Paris.

Orla stayed back for a bit, looking down at her current outfit and wondering what exactly caused Erin to call it ‘hideous’ earlier, then a soft hand grabbed hers and pulled her out of her thoughts.

“I think it’s cute.” Orla’s eyes lit up at Michelle’s comment as she held on tighter to the shorter girls hand, finally walking out of the room and hurrying downstairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay! Now before we head in there, I think we should set up some ground rules, we really need to think this whole thing through befor-“

Clare had a bit of a feeling deep down inside that she wasn’t going to be able to finish her lecture anyway but she did have the hope that her friends would at least try to listen to her before barging into their assigned hotel room. The door was practically kicked in by Erin, followed by a loud “fuck that!” from Michelle who promptly followed Erin in, dragging Orla right behind her. At least James had the audacity to give Clare an apologetic look before quickly replacing it with his excited puppy face. The shortest of the group looked on as her friends jumped onto the twin beds they were all somehow supposed to share and began jumping on them, shoes and all, and she physically cringed at how dirty those fluffy white comforters are going to get.

“Don’t just stand there, Clare! You know you want to join in, come on!” The invitation itself was quite convincing, and Erin didn’t really have to fling a pillow at Clare’s face but nonetheless it did snap her out of her daze and soon she was jumping on the beds with her good friends, like a bunch of 5 year olds on a candy binge. Or like Orla on a candy binge.

After an hour of relentless laughter, yelling and curse words every now and then, the jumping seized and the girls had finally calmed down. Pillows were strewn about the room, the fluffy comforters had made the sleek and polished floor their home as the warm and rosy sunset was seeping in from the delicate curtains flowing in the breeze, the girl’s first day in Paris was drawing to a close. It seemed as if everything and everyone was befallen by a feeling of all being right in the world, and it was welcome. Erin decided to start unpacking her things and tried to organize her outfits for the upcoming days. Clare took a seat on one of the massive ivory white couches and buried her nose into her French-English dictionary book, ready to immerse herself in the entire French experience. James had spent the last ten minutes trying to get the room’s radio to work to no avail. Near the open windows and on the ruined comforters now on the floor, laid both Orla and Michelle as they discussed the very important topic of which types of candy are the best and which deserve to be ‘thrown into the nearest bin’ as Michelle so quaintly put it.

“Just because you think that black licorice is gross doesn’t mean that everyone else shouldn’t be allowed to have it.”

“Miss Orla McCool, are you telling me that you’re a fan of the worst creation ever known to man?” Michelle ripped her gaze from the curtains flowing freely above their heads and turned to look at the tall girl beside her, realizing just now that her face was only inches away but before she could process the situation, an elbow came out in between them and playfully nudged her. Michelle gasped dramatically at this and pretended to be offended. Orla’s eyes finally found the dreamy curtains boring and her attentive eyes immediately flashed to the girl next to her. Michelle’s smile slowly faded, now in an intense staring contest with her dear friend in which the first one to blink falls in love. Orla quirked an eyebrow at Michelle which caused both girls to smile at each other. Michelle wondered if this girl has always been this mischievous; and just exactly how long she has gone without noticing those daring brown eyes that look at you as if to ask you to follow her to the ends of the world just for the hell of it. And almost as if it was on cue, right as Michelle was caught in a trance by gorgeous brown eyes, Michelle watched as those same eyes flickered down to look at her lips. Orla’s brown orbs still held the same dangerous gaze they previously had, but now there was something more there. Green eyes searched for an answer and right when brown met green with the intensity of a thousand suns, they were startled by an abrupt break in the silence.

“Finally! I didn’t think this thing even worked!”

James looked around the room looking for anyone to acknowledge his achievement, only to be shushed by Clare, who was still studying, and ignored by the other girls. Michelle rolled her eyes and went back to staring at the curtains, by god he’s such a dick. She pretended not to see out of the corner of her eye when Orla slightly shifted away from her and started playing with her hands. Michelle decided James now owed her a slap to the back of the head and she wished she could be excited about it but she mostly felt disappointed and even a little bit sad. ‘Why Try to Change Me Now’ played on the radio, the only other sounds being the turning of pages, suitcases being zipped and unzipped, and occasional huffs coming from Orla. Michelle wondered if she should say anything but she knows she’s the worst at trying to lighten the mood and she was afraid she’d end up saying the wrong thing so she decided to not say anything. After a few minutes, Michelle was starting to become sleepy when Orla gave one final huff and abruptly sat up. The shorter girl sat up and instinctively reached out to grab Orla’s hand.

“What’s happened, are you alright?”

Michelle tried to look at Orla’s face for answers but the girl’s long locks hid her face as she stared at the comforters below her.

“I’m going to help Erin unpack.”

The tall girl seemed to hesitate and Michelle realized she was still holding onto her hand and quickly let go. And with a quick ‘sorry’, the curly haired girl was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours later, the girls had eaten dinner and most of the group was settled around the television as they flipped mindlessly through channels, not finding anything good. The night had finally settled in, and the city lights lit up the dark horizon. Clare was practicing some French with Erin on the sofa, Clare narrowed in on her dictionary while Erin rested her head on the armrest and tried her hardest to stay focused. James was still stubbornly trying to find something interesting on the television, that boy’s patience could last for days. Michelle sat on the floor in front of the tv with him and as much as she completely loved flipping through infinite channels for hours, her eyelids were starting to get heavy.

“Alright, fuck this. I’m going to bed.” Michelle started getting up and began to stretch as she yawned, when suddenly Erin sat up.

“Wait a minute, who’s sleeping where?”

The girls all looked at each other, they hadn’t thought about sleeping arrangements and there was only two twin beds. It didn’t take long for Michelle to speak up and state the obvious.

“Dickface is sleeping on the couch and I call one of the beds.”

The girls quickly agreed and it was all fixed within a couple of seconds, what an absolute win. Michelle went to go change into her pajamas and once she came back she noticed Orla had taken one of the beds and fallen asleep since god knows when. So much for the city that never sleeps. She wondered if Orla would still be upset the next morning and secretly hoped the girl would be back to her normal weird self instead. Michelle wanted this trip to be fun but mostly she also wanted it to be fun for Orla as well. Deciding it would be best to give Orla her space, Michelle walked over to the other bed and started climbing in before she was abruptly stopped by Erin.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting in bed? The fuck does it look like I’m doing?”

“Clare and I called that bed earlier, but of course you weren’t listening.”

“Well Clare can sleep in this one with me, you can sleep on that other one with your cousin, you’re used to it anyway.”

“Yeah, except I’m used to sharing a bed with Orla, which is why I’m sharing one with Clare now. Just share with Orla at least for this first night, please, Michelle. We can switch back tomorrow night.”

Michelle thought about it for a second. She wanted to give Orla her space, but would she really care if Michelle slept in her bed? It really isn’t that big of a deal, is it? Not only that but Erin really was taking this bed sharing thing to heart, so Michelle decided to take the risk and climb into the bed Orla was sleeping in. She was really tired and this whole discussion was boring her, she just wanted to sleep.

“Fine, who gives a fuck anyway, goodnight.”

Orla was quite the messy sleeper, she was basically sprawled out all over the bed, arms stretched out in weird angles and messy brown curls splashed out above her head. Michelle found it quite funny and endearing and cursed at herself for not having brought her Polaroid along on the trip. She climbed into the side of the bed, careful not to wake her sleeping friend and quietly tried to sneak some covers from Orla, who was hogging most of them, with some success. The dark-haired girl didn’t take long falling asleep as Orla’s rhythmic breathing next to her slowly sent her off to dream.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay girls gather up and listen closely because I will not be repeating this,” all of the girls stopped talking and quickly gathered around Sister Michael. “We will be here for the next 3 hours of which I expect you to be on your best behavior. This is isn’t just any museum, this is The Louvre we are speaking about and while I do despise the French, I am quite fond of their sense of artistry and don’t even get me started on the statues. You will be allowed to split into groups of your own for the tours so please do not make me regret giving you this opportunity. Afterwards, we will all regroup for our dreaded but “required” picnic to bond and laugh together and all of that gross stuff. Start splitting into groups of no more than ten, please, make it quick.”

Everyone began splitting into groups, with the four girls and James obviously making sure to be in the same group. Girls shuffled about quickly here and there for about a minute, some were unfortunate enough to get pushed such as James. After the groups were done and settled, they were escorted to their respective tour guides and began making their way through the museum. The tour went as expected for most of the morning, with the curious girls actively listening to the tour guide explain some of the pieces, and with an unnecessarily loud amount of comments from Michelle about “sculpted tits” and how the Mona Lisa was “actually quite a bit of a ride.” Most of those comments usually came with an elbow from Erin to the ribs but other than that, it was going quite smooth.

“You know Michelle, have you ever wondered if maybe you should think before you speak sometimes?”

“Have you ever wondered if maybe you should think before you dress yourself like a giant baby, Clare?”

Erin had sensed that Clare’s comment to Michelle was going to backfire as soon as she had said it but she seriously thought that Clare had learned to know better than to start an argument with Michelle, that girl is the Mohammed Ali of insults.

“Okay, just shut up, both of you. I’ve already got enough on my plate as it is right now. I knew I should’ve eaten breakfast this morning, my stomach is rumbling and I’m afraid at some point it’s going to be louder than that tour lady. I mean, what if she’s talking and all of a sudden everyone just hears my stomach growling like how Granda Joe growls when Daddy tries to change the channel on the tv!”

The girls quickly gathered into their usual circle, with Clare being the usual beam of common sense.

“Okay, I do understand that you’re on the verge of starving to death right now, Erin but I also remember trying to get you to at least have some toast this morning so you know, you’ve made your choices.”

“Physically shoving a piece of toast into my mouth is not the way a normal person would’ve gone about it, Clare!”

“Girls! Lower your voice please!” The girls were cut off by an exasperated tour-guide-lady and sheepishly turned their attention back to the woman. “This piece is called ‘Psyche Revived by the Kiss of Love’, it is a very romantic sculpture created by Antonio Canova.”

As the woman went on, Michelle stood on the tips of her toes trying to catch a glimpse of the sculpture as she sadly turned out to be standing right behind Big Mandy. During her struggle, she noticed two dorky hair buns set on top of a tilted head at the very front of the group and immediately knew the dork whom they belonged to. Michelle was aware that the taller girl had taken off earlier during the argument Clare and Michelle had gotten into, and she was still wary of overstepping any boundaries with the girl. Orla also happens to be the only one out of the group that’s actually interested in this tour as opposed to her group of friends so it’s no surprise she took off on her own to admire things from up close with no interruption. Michelle knew she probably shouldn’t but soon she was slowly making her way up to the front where Orla was standing, pushing and shoving as quietly as she could.

Some of the shoving caught the attention of some girls, one of them being Orla, and the taller girl turned to watch Michelle as she finally got to the front and next to her. Michelle felt a bit embarrassed as once again, the tour lady had to stop talking, and she quietly apologized earning her a stern glare from the older woman. Orla looked over at Michelle and teasingly put her finger up to her mouth to shush her, causing Michelle to playfully roll her eyes.

“This is based off of an Ancient Greek myth written by the great Apuleius, also known for other novels such as The Golden Ass.”

This earned a loud snort from Michelle and as the tour guide turned to give her another glare, Orla wrapped an arm around Michelle’s shoulders and covered her boisterous friend’s mouth with her hand. With a nod, the woman kept going without missing a beat.

“It was said that Psyche was so unequivocally beautiful that the ‘poverty of language was unable to express its due praise.’ The goddess Venus became so jealous of Psyche that she sent her son Cupid to the land of mortals to get Psyche to fall in love with a monster and Cupid was sent on his way. Although, the story takes a turn when Cupid sets eyes on this beacon of beauty and accidentally falls in love with Psyche himself...”

While the woman kept on with the story, Orla was the one to speak up this time except she knew to be quiet enough unlike her dear friends.

“She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?,” she fawned as she looked over the beautifully sculpted Psyche.

Michelle, with a hand still holding her mouth shut, had her eyes fixed on Orla as she nodded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How absolutely cracker is it that we get to have a catered picnic right by the Eiffel Tower?!”

Erin and the girls sat on a grassy field, surrounded by their classmates and Sister Michael who seemed more interested in reading her book than conversing with the girls around her.

“I definitely agree that this is very cracker, Erin, but how cracker is it that we also get to eat authentic Italian pizza!”

Erin and Clare had started up their endless ‘how cracker is it’ inside joke and it was getting its usual laugh out of the girls. It was a warm day, with a gentle breeze. There was people everywhere you looked, riding their bikes, walking their dogs etc., the day couldn’t get any better. The girls eventually calmed down from their laughing fit, and sat comfortably amongst each other as they ate, looking around at the beautiful city and admiring the beauty of it all.

It was after Orla had finished her slice of pizza that she turned to Michelle and struck up conversation for the first time since yesterday.

“You talk in your sleep, you know.” Michelle, taken aback by this, almost choked on her soda.

“Oh, do I? Sorry about that... I think?”

“Oh it’s not a bad thing, at least I don’t think it is? It was a little creepy at first though, I thought you were talking to yourself.”

“You should’ve woken me up then. I think I would’ve smacked someone if I ever heard them sleep talking next to me. James sleep walks sometimes, the creepy fuck. I have to get my Ma to deal with him, I’ve seen too many horror movies.”

Orla smiled at the thought of Deidre having to deal with a sleepwalking James, the boy is already quite daft as it is. Although the woman is quite tender with him when needed, it’s a drastic change compared to how cold his own mother can be with him.

“I’m going to get more pizza, come with me?” Orla stood up as she asked, holding a hand out for Michelle to take. Maybe it was the angle or just the fact that Michelle hadn’t really gotten a good look at her today but Orla seemed to be wearing one of Erin’s crop tops? It took a second for Michelle to remember that Orla didn’t pack anything for the trip, making the choice to only wear that jumpsuit for the whole trip. By the looks of it, Erin put a damper on that plan of hers. Another glance and Michelle realized that the entire outfit was Erin’s. The Adidas, the baby pink sweatpants and the pink and white striped crop top. Michelle remembers helping Erin pick out that specific crop top. The thing is that Orla’s much taller than Erin, and the crop top rides up a little more than it should.

“Are you coming with me or not?”

“Abs.... uh wha-?”

“What?”

“Abs...olutely.”

Michelle took Orla’s hand and they began walking towards the area where the food was set up. Orla was contently looking around and taking in the ambiance. Michelle on the other hand, was wondering if step aerobics can really get you that buff. Shit, should she start taking some classes? Maybe then she can take on Big Mandy and finally become HBIC at school. It’s one of her dreams.

“Did they make you share beds with me yesterday?”

Michelle’s “top bitch at school” fantasy was cut short by Orla’s question. They were now standing in the line that had formed at the food table, seriously, how hard is it to just take a slice and go?

“Yeah, they sort of did but I wanted to anyway.” Orla’s expression changed from curious to something Michelle couldn’t read.

“What do you mean?” Michelle remembered the events that happened yesterday as they laid on the floor and quickly realized this wasn’t just a casual conversation.

“What? No. Sorry, I meant that as like, Erin said she wanted to share with Clare because she never gets to or some shit and yeah?... what I mean is that I did it as a favor to Erin.”

Orla said nothing for a moment, her eyes had that look they get when she’s analyzing something in her head, like you can almost see the cogs turning in her head.

“So, you didn’t want to?”

Michelle felt both agitated but also like she should apologize at the same time, so she did.

“No, that’s also not what I meant. Okay... give me a minute.” Michelle knew she was never good with words, yeah she can kill your entire ego and confidence as fast as you can say ‘ouch’, but she’s bad at wording anything else that isn’t just outright insults. She also found that it tends to happen when it comes to anything having to do with Orla lately. “I did want to share beds with you, but you just sort of left out of nowhere yesterday and I assumed you were mad at me or something. So no, I didn’t want to share beds with you yesterday because of that but I also did because... you’re my friend.”

“We’ve been friends this entire time, silly.”

Both girls laughed at the obvious comment, and the tension left the air as soon as smiles broke out on their faces.

“You know what I meant. I’m sorry by the way, about yesterday. I don’t know what I did but I think I definitely had to have done something for you to leave like that.” Orla bit her lip and looked off into the distance, trying to arrange her words and feelings in the right order.

“You didn’t do anything, don’t apologize,” she began to wring her hands, “I just wasn’t feeling too well.” Michelle had a feeling that there was more to that, but she knew better than to pry.

“Well, now that we’ve got that out of the way, I think we should talk about the fact that you hog all of the sheets. Oh! And not only that, you also hog the pillows! How’s a girl to get a good night’s sleep in those conditions? Could’ve sworn you were trying to get me to freeze to death in my sleep, Curly.”

The girls finally got to the table and began grabbing their slice, Orla took her slice and put it near Michelle’s face, tapping her nose with the pointy end.

“Careful there, woman. Are you trying to poke my eye out!”

The girls walked back to their group of friends, both of them feeling a weight off their shoulders. They both held the hope that things would go back to normal. Michelle was mostly thankful that she was sure both Orla and herself were now going to enjoy the trip without any weird tension.

“I just don’t really think that any of that’s true!”

Orla and Michelle sat next to each other on the grass, sharing a look while James went on a rant. Orla decided to ask what it was about and stopped him while she could.

“What are you on about, James?” Erin and Clare burst into laughter, so much that they were in tears. James wasn’t as amused as both of his blonde friends and turned to look at Orla with a frustrated look on his face.

“What’s so hard to understand about the fact that I don’t think stereotypes about specific groups of people are true, Orla!”

“Calm the fuck down, dicko.” Michelle was used to getting her emotional cousin to pipe down after his weird and whiny outbursts. “Don’t tell me Erin and Clare are picking on you?” Michelle could barely get through her sentence before she burst out laughing along with her friends, Orla simply put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

The girls eventually calmed down and Erin began blabbering about her usual drama, something about Charlene Kavanagh. Clare, as usual, visibly rolled her eyes at whatever Erin was saying, while James actually found this kind of stuff intriguing. He once said it’s like watching a soap opera with the exact same amount of drama. Apparently, James and Deidre are really into watching soap operas together. Orla was playing with the grass and humming some song that almost sounded familiar to Michelle. She almost figured it out when Orla suddenly said something aloud to her.

“I could definitely climb that if I wanted to.” Michelle turned her head towards Orla, confused as to what the girl was even talking about and realized Orla was looking at the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

“I think you definitely could, but you also shouldn’t. As in, please don’t.” They shared a look and smiled. One would think that Orla was joking around but Michelle knew her well enough to know that everything this girl says has a truth to it. “Stick to trees, Mowgli.”

Orla kept her eyes ahead of her, daydreaming about what it would be like to climb the Eiffel Tower. Humming and running blades of grass through her hands, she leaned her head over onto Michelle’s shoulder.

The City of Love definitely lives up to its name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was the girls’ final night in Paris and as much as they tried, they couldn’t convince Sister Michael to extend the seven o’clock curfew. Something about looking after eighty girls all by herself having low chances of turning out alright. The girls were getting ready for bed knowing they would have to get up early the next morning to head back to Derry. Really it was mostly Clare’s idea, the rest of the girls wanted to stay up late as usual and watch television. James was going on about how much fun he had during the trip to Clare. Erin was on the phone to her Ma and letting her know that everyone was doing okay, per the whole ‘call me in the morning and at night’ rule Ma Mary had given her. Orla was sitting next to Erin, listening intently to the entire phone call and eventually having an entire conversation with her mom Sarah who was also sat next to Ma Mary listening in on the call. Michelle watched them from across the room, smiling at how similar those two are to their moms.

When the time came for everyone to go to sleep, or at least try to, Michelle made her way to the bed she had slept in the previous night, much to Orla’s relief. Right before Michelle climbed into bed, Erin stepped in to stop her.

“What are you doing?” Michelle dropped the pillow she was fluffing and turned to her friend.

“The fuck are _you_ doing?”

Erin gave her best friend a blank look, expecting Michelle to remember last night’s conversation.

“We said we’d switch beds yesterday, remember? You let me share with Clare and now you don’t have to sleep with Orla.”

Erin began climbing into the bed where Orla was sat giving Michelle an apologetic look. Erin was almost done settling in when Michelle stopped her.

“I’m backing out of the deal, I don’t want to switch beds.” Orla and her cousin looked up at Michelle with a confused expression.

“Why’s that?”

“Because, Erin. Clare snored all of last night and I couldn’t get a blink of sleep. I’ll get even less if I have to sleep next to her. It’ll be like trying to sleep next to a fuckin’ jack hammer.”

“I do not snore, Michelle! Isn’t that right, Erin?!”

Orla caught onto Michelle’s ruse and joined in before Erin could answer.

“Aye, I heard it too, Clare. Erin wouldn’t know either way because Erin is a really heavy sleeper. I accidentally pushed her out of the bed once in my sleep and she didn’t even feel it.”

“You what?! When did that happen? Is that why I had that weird bump on my head for the longest time?”

Michelle was losing it at this point. She knew Orla was obviously lying about Clare’s snoring with her but she had a feeling that Orla was telling the truth about Erin being a heavy sleeper and kicking her off the bed. She’s pretty sure she also felt Orla kick her once or twice last night.

“Alright, lets all just calm down for a second. Fuck, that’s hilarious. Okay, so we’ve clearly got the sleeping arrangement figured out. The heavy sleeper with the jack hammer snorer, you’re perfect for each other, almost like that Greek mythology story we learned about today. Right Erin, off you go then.”

Erin gave her friend the meanest glare she could muster before she climbed off of the bed and headed over to the other bed where Clare was sat having an existential crisis over her nonexistent snoring. Michelle and Orla shared a look and stifled their laughter. James got up and made sure everyone was settled in and ready before turning the lights off. Orla remembered something and she grabbed a handful of the covers and pulled them towards Michelle.

“Just in case,” she whispered. Michelle could see the girl’s face in the moonlight and a part of her wishes she hadn’t because her heart was racing now and she was worried it could be loud enough for Orla to hear.

“Thanks,” was all Michelle could get out. She felt like she had just ran a mile and then also gotten punched in the heart. Minutes passed with just the two of them staring at each other, Orla’s rhythmic breathing helped Michelle get hers back to normal. The silver moonlight on Orla’s freckles captivated Michelle, it was like the girl had all these little constellations scattered about her face and she wanted nothing more than to lay under the stars and declare her love for them. A gentle hand reached out after what could’ve been minutes or eternities, and it moved a lock of dark wavy hair out of Michelle’s face, lingering for a movement before finding its home on Michelle’s cheek. Orla’s thumb carefully reached down to grace Michelle’s lips, wishing for an invitation; and for the first time, Michelle saw uncertainty on an always valiant face. Orla’s eyes were fixed on Michelle’s lips for a long while, and Michelle could tell through her eyes that the girl was having an internal argument with herself. Eventually, lost brown orbs looked up to find green and those eyes were saying something to Michelle that she couldn’t understand. “What are you doing to me?”

Orla closed her eyes slowly, disheartened, not getting the reply that she wanted or expected. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, smiling at Michelle. Orla slowly leaned in, keeping her hand on Michelle’s cheek, who on the other end, was trying to keep her heart from bursting. Petal-soft lips lingered on Michelle’s forehead, and the world stopped turning.

“Goodnight, Michelle.”

And with that, the girl who had made the world stop moving, turned to her side and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve never been to the louvre so the whole process they do when they’re on the tour is definitely made up by me lol so pls don’t call me out, I know I’m wrong. I took so long writing this one because I wanted it to be way longer than the first two so hopefully that makes up for how long it took me to write it haha but here we are again! Hopefully ya liked it, also yay season 2 is on Netflix now! I don’t think I have an idea for the next one yet so how fast I write another one will depend on how fast I come up with another idea lol hope you enjoyed!


	4. when the smoke is in your eyes you look so alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> love, photographs and other drugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what up baybee, there's gonna be some drug use in this chapter here, it's of the pill variety and it's not too heavy I wouldn't say, but yeah be advised and also don't do drugs ok bye

“What do you mean you can’t come with me?”  
Orla stomped her way around her cousin’s bed and stood face to face with Erin.

“For the last time, Orla. Clare made me promise that I’d help her study for her French final. If I’m not by her house in half an hour she’s going to show up right here in my room and lecture me about morals and friendship. Trust me, she’s done it before.”

Erin turned her back to her cousin and proceeded to rummage through her backpack to make sure everything was there.

“But I need you to come with me to the park, Erin! I need to hand my photograph in on Monday and I only have this weekend to get the perfect one!” Orla had that pleading look in her eyes she gets when she asks her cousin for a favor and usually it helps but Erin wasn’t falling for it today.

“Oh for God’s sake, Orla. Just take some pictures of my Ma’s garden. You can even take a picture of Toto’s fake grave for sympathy points and maybe you’ll get a really good grade!” Erin noticed the taller girl was mulling something over in her head for a minute before she furrowed her eyebrows at Erin.

“You don’t just take pictures of flowers and call it photography, Erin. It’s more complicated than that, either way, I’ll just go by myself.” Orla briskly made her way around the room and Erin quickly dropped her backpack and was right on her heels.

“Orla, that’s not what I meant! I didn’t mean to-,” right as Orla opened the door to leave, both cousins were met with a familiar face.

“Mothafuckassss!” Michelle gave both of her friends a cheery smile and stretched out her arms in a welcoming manner before taking in Erin’s flustered face and Orla’s serious demeanor. Michelle quickly put her arms down, hands into her jean pockets and cleared her throat. “Gee, what’s up your holes?”

“Orla’s upset I can’t go to the park with her and help her with her photography stuff.” Michelle turned her attention from Erin to Orla, waiting for the girl to say something but she just impatiently ran a hand through her hair.

“I knew you were artsy but you never told me you were into photography, Curly?” Michelle raised her eyebrows at Orla who in turn pushed past Michelle and started making her way down the hallway. “Whoa alright, hold on a minute!” Orla was about to start making her way down the stairs when Michelle caught up to her. “Fine, I’ll come with you, by god please stop asking me, Curly.” Orla stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Michelle, a sweet smile spread across her lips before her face turned into one of confusion.

“Wait, but I hadn’t asked you to come with me?” Michelle rolled her eyes and playfully shoved Orla by the shoulder, grabbing her hand and dragging the taller girl downstairs with her.

“Let’s go get your stuff, you big doof.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So what exactly are we going to be looking for?”

Orla looked towards the girl beside her, tilting her head with a smile.  
“We’re not looking for anything exact, just pretty things and beautiful stuff. There’s plenty of that around here.” Orla gestured the park they were currently strolling around in, not taking her eyes off of Michelle.

“Right. Well, what about those geese over there? I bet those long-necked fucks are feeling very photogenic right now.” The shorter girl grinned over at her friend who had a hesitant look on her face.

“Those geese are anything but photogenic, Michelle. Last time Erin and I came here, I tried to take a picture of one of them and I got chased like ten blocks from here.” Michelle immediately burst into laughter at the revelation while Orla smiled down at the camera she had strapped around her neck and was fidgeting with it.

“You can’t be serious, oh my god I’m going to shit myself out of laughter. How come you’ve never told me this story! What about Erin? What was she doing while you got chased?”

“Oh, both of us were getting chased. When the one geese started flapping its wings at me for trying to take a picture of it, Erin decided it would be a good idea to start yelling at it and that’s when the whole herd of geese chased us home.” Michelle’s laughing fit got worse as Orla’s story progressed and she had to quickly hold onto a bench they were passing and sat down on it, holding her belly and laughing her heart out. Orla sat down next to her and kept adjusting her camera, giving Michelle amused glances every now and then.

After a couple of minutes and a few weird looks from passing strangers, Michelle had calmed down and was wiping tears from her eyes. The afternoon sun was being a bit harsh but the bench the girls were sitting on was luckily under some shade. It was a nice day out, with mothers walking about with their kids, some couples were sitting around the lake on picnic blankets and there were even some ducks waddling about. Orla had finished messing with her camera and was looking around the park. Michelle noticed that Orla had this serious and calculating face and she fully sat up, looking over at what her friend was looking at.

“Are you staring at that couple sucking face, you perv?” Michelle smirked and nudged Orla with her elbow and the girl gave her a grossed out look.

“Gross. I’m just looking around for things to take pictures of. Like, nice stuff and all that.”

Michelle dramatically sat up straight and jokingly stroked her chin. “Ooh, right yes. Maybe you should get up off your lazy ass and get up close and personal then! How are you going to know if something is good enough for a picture if you’re looking at it from far away?”

Orla rolled her eyes and took a deep breath as she stood up, pretending to painfully grab at her back. “You do have a point, missy. I will sacrifice my arthritis and back pain for you. If I die, let my grandchildren know that I’m happy I never met them.”

“Oh I will, Mrs. McCool. Don’t put too much weight on your bad knee out there.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About an hour or so had passed as Michelle sat cross legged on the park bench, watching Orla stroll all over the park, taking pictures of anything from ducks swimming by on the lake to sun-kissed orchards. Michelle imagined what the pictures were going to look like when developed, surely they were going to come out looking great. Orla definitely had an eye for it, she was stopping to take pictures of things that Michelle would usually just glance over without a second thought. But with every picture Orla took, Michelle could see the dissatisfaction her taller friend was feeling. She couldn’t see Orla’s facial expressions from afar but she saw how the girl’s shoulders dropped every time she put the camera down and how she walked around slightly slower each time, looking around the park a little more impatiently each time.

Eventually, Orla made one last round around the park and made her way back to the bench where Michelle was sitting. There was beads of sweat forming on her forehead and Michelle wondered why today of all days, Orla had chosen to let her hair down. The taller girl took a seat next to Michelle and picked up a handful of her hair up over her head with one hand and fanned the back of her neck with the other.

“Any luck out there, Curly?” Michelle watched as Orla bit her lip and shook her head.

“If anything, all I’ve done is just waste film today. I don’t think anything good is going to come out of the shots I took today.” Orla put her hair back down, realizing that fanning her neck with her hand wasn’t doing much to help her cool down. She leaned back on the bench with a huff and stared at the grass beneath her as she played with her hands. Michelle could tell that the girl currently had a million things running through her head and it hurt her to think that the taller girl felt so frustrated.

“Oh, Orla. To think you spent hours walking around looking for something pretty when you had it right here next to you.” Michelle gestured to herself and jokingly flipped her hair, watching as her friend looked up at her and smiled. Michelle mentally congratulated for successfully cheering up another human being for what she thinks is probably the first time ever. “Either way, your Granda Joe will just buy you more film when you run out and if he doesn’t for some reason, even though we both know he will, I’ll do it.”

Both girls shared smiles and sat quietly for a few minutes and watched the ducks waddle around the grass.

“I think you’ve got a point.” Orla broke silence and stood up in front of Michelle.

“Oh, I’m always right, I know.. but uh, right about what exactly?” Michelle scrunched her face as she looked up at the taller girl.

“I’ve been walking around, taking pictures of plants and rocks and ducks. Maybe I need to be taking pictures of people. But, I don’t really think any of the people here would appreciate me just walking up to them and taking pictures out of nowhere. Hot weather makes people grouchy and I don’t want to get yelled at. So, instead I’ll just take pictures of you.”

“That’s a great idea but I was only joking, Orla.” Michelle couldn’t tell if Orla was actually being serious at first but when the girl gave her a sad pouty face, she realized Orla was not playing around. And so Michelle decided to make an excuse. “Even if I did agree to it, I can’t model for you because I didn’t dress nice today.”

Orla rolled her eyes at this and crossed her arms. “You always dress nice, you’ve said so yourself. You always brag about how someone should give you an award for looking ‘absolutely stunning’ every day. So don’t give me any of that. Got any other excuses?”

Michelle considered making an argument but she knew that she had actually said that sort of thing before, countless times actually, so she gave in.

“Fine, what do you want me to do?” Orla’s face lit up and she did a small excited clap of her hands.

“Okay, well I think we could do some shots here on the bench and then definitely some by the lake. But for now, just pick whatever position you think is comfortable, sit back on the bench, lay on it or whatever you’d like. I’ll do the rest.” Orla was speaking at a faster rate than she normally does and Michelle made a mental note to ask Erin when Orla became this much of a geek for photography.

“What if I just sit sort of casual, with like my arms resting on the back of the bench?” Orla thought for a moment and inspected Michelle.

“I think it’d look good if you sit right in the middle of the bench and rest your face on one of your hands.”

“Right, awesome, just give me a minute. I’m sweating my tits off.” Michelle stood up and slipped out of a bright red cardigan she had been wearing over a white tank top since it had been chilly in the morning but by now it was blazing hot and she didn’t want to start getting sweaty during the photo shoot. She tied the cardigan’s sleeves around the waist of her light blue jean shorts and sat down on the bench, getting her pose done and ready for the camera. “Alright, I’m ready.”

Orla wasn’t quite expecting the sudden wardrobe change, and she found herself a bit distracted to say the least.

“Are you going to take the picture or just stand there? What are you looking at, anyway? Is there a stain on my shirt or something?” Orla snapped out of her daze and went to crouch, quickly grabbing her camera and putting it up to her face.

“Okay, stay still and look at the camera, try not to blink. I’m going to take a couple in different angles so stay put.”

The girl began taking pictures, moving around and trying out other angles as she went. She took a couple before getting distracted once more. The thing was that Orla was mostly used to seeing Michelle in the school’s uniform and those button up shirts really cover up the whole cleavage situation. And yes, Orla had seen Michelle in tank tops before but something about the camera and the lens was really accentuating her... curves? You know, boobs.

“Are you going to keep taking more pictures or is that it? I can’t stay still any longer, my arm is cramping up.” Orla cleared her throat and took the camera away from her face, nodding to Michelle.

“Let’s take some more by the lake and I think we should be good for today.” Both girls began walking towards the lake, Michelle fixing her hair as well as she could without a mirror and Orla fiddling with her camera.

“So, how was I?” The shorter girl asked with a smirk on her face.

“You’re a natural, Michelle Mallon. I would’ve thought you had done modeling before if I didn’t know you.” Orla wiggled her eyebrows at Michelle, earning an eye roll from the girl.

“Okay, tone it down a bit, Casanova. I just wanted to know if you had any notes, is all.”

“You’re doing very well, don’t worry.” The girls got to the lake and Michelle waited while Orla thought for a second. She noticed the sun was starting to set by now, prompting people to leave and therefore the park was a lot quieter.

“Okay, so let’s have you sit here on the grass with your back to the lake, facing away from the sun.” Michelle did as she was told and sat cross legged and leaned back with her hands on the grass.

“Is this good?”

Orla gave Michelle a thumbs up and got into position to take the shots when the taller girl furrowed her eyebrows and bit her lip. “Give me a second, the film got jammed.”

“That’s very unprofessional of you, Curly. I expected better from you.” Orla laughed and began messing with her camera. A few minutes passed and Michelle had gotten bored and started playing with the grass as she waited. Orla, being naturally patient, got the issue fixed.

“Okay, I’m done. Let me know when you’re ready.”

“I’m always ready.”

The photo-shoot was now started, and Orla took a few seconds in between of every shot to make sure the lighting was right.

There was a sudden but intense moment of realization for Orla in the midst of everything that was currently going on. While she was in the zone, taking note of the sunset behind Michelle, making sure the girl’s hair wasn’t out of place, and watching her eyes intently to make sure that she didn’t catch her mid-blink, something happened. It was as if green eyes were looking into her soul through the camera lens, and Orla felt everything hit her out of nowhere. She felt like laughing and crying, all at once. For the past few months, she has been feeling like she’s constantly on edge. Anytime she’s around Michelle, she feels like she wants to laugh so much that she can’t stop and then cry until she can’t anymore. It started out as a small feeling and it was easy to get rid of at first but ever since they went to Paris, it got a million times stronger.

Paris. She’s been avoiding even thinking about it since they got back. And she thinks Michelle has, too. Their last night there is all Orla has been thinking about lately. She was so close to Michelle but it felt like there was an invisible barrier between them. Orla remembers the feelings overcame her and she was suddenly really close to kissing Michelle’s lips and then in the blink of an eye she was kissing her forehead instead.

She’ll admit that she wants nothing more in the world than to kiss Michelle, but the fear of the repercussions overcome the need. What it is that scares Orla is something she hasn’t been able to figure out. It’s like waking up mortified from a nightmare but as soon as you open your eyes, you forget what was terrifying you. And you try to remember but you can’t and all you’re left with is a sense of dread that keeps you from going back to sleep.

“Orla, are you okay? You haven’t done or said anything for like the past five minutes, are we finished?” Michelle leaned forward to try to get a look at Orla, who still had the camera held up to her face. “Curly?”

The taller girl still sat opposite Michelle on the grass and slowly started lowering the camera from her face. She looked like a deer caught in headlights. Tears were brimming her eyes and they were glued to Michelle. Her eyes were so glossy and so pretty and the tears were one blink away from spilling but Orla had yet to let it happen. It didn’t take long for Michelle to notice the state the girl was in and she sat up on her knees.

“Oh my god, Orla what’s wrong? What’s happened? Are you okay?” Michelle searched Orla’s catatonic eyes for any sign that she was in distress but couldn’t read them. “Orla, please say something.” Glossy brown eyes bore into Michelle’s and she felt her heart breaking. Michelle reached for Orla’s hand and put her lips on the back of the shaking hand, mentally willing Orla to say anything at all. “Let met help you.”

Orla closed her eyes and finally let the tears fall. A few seconds passed and she slowly opened her eyes. Freckled cheeks shimmered from tears in the sunset and Orla gently freed her hand from Michelle’s grasp. Once it was free, the shaky hand made its way up to cradle the shorter girl’s face. Michelle watched in a trance as Orla slowly leaned in, closer and closer. It felt like that feeling she gets when she’s had too much to drink and she bumps into something, the world spins around her and yet everything stays completely still. Orla’s face is getting closer and she can’t focus on anything except the fact that the sunset shining on Orla’s hair makes her curls glow. Michelle’s ears are ringing and the hand on her cheek is the only thing keeping her from falling off the face of the Earth.

Everything goes black as her eyes close and trembling, nervous lips meet hers. A black hole in Michelle’s stomach sucked her heart in and launched it into the unknown. Orla’s lips taste like sugar and Michelle isn’t surprised.

Orla can hear her heart beating in her ears but she doesn’t care because Michelle’s lips feel like fabric-softened rose petals and she can’t get enough of how soft they are. Orla moves to place her other free hand on Michelle’s face and right when she’s about to deepen the kiss, Michelle abruptly pulls back and out of her grasp.

There’s tears relentlessly spilling from Michelle’s eyes and she’s slowly shaking her head as she stares back at Orla’s disheartened eyes.

“Why did you do that?”

Orla’s shoulders drop and she looks at Michelle helplessly, wanting to apologize and try to explain herself and say the million things she had been wanting to say since they came back from Paris but her mouth betrayed her and said nothing. Michelle hastily wiped the tears from her cheeks as she got up from the grass and walked off, deciding to go home while fighting the urge to look back at a heartbroken Orla.

The sunset was barely out and the glow it was creating on Orla’s curls earlier was now gone. All that was left was the silhouette of a girl sitting on the grass with her head bowed and her curls covering her face. Erin was sadly right about Derry not being as romantic as Paris.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I don’t want to talk about it, Erin. Okay? I already told you I’m fine so just leave me alone.” Orla sat on a lawn chair in her backyard while she looked through the developed pictures she had taken yesterday at the park. Erin had shown up to check on Orla, finding it odd that the girl hadn’t gone over to Erin’s house since yesterday, and Orla and aunt Sarah practically live at Erin’s house.

“Then how come you didn’t spend the night yesterday? You always do. You didn’t even come over for breakfast, Orla.” Erin noticed that her cousin was avoiding eye contact. “Did you get into a fight with Michelle?” Orla stopped flipping through the pictures on her lap for a moment.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because she hasn’t been around either and she was supposed to come over and get ready with me so we could go to John Paul’s party tonight.” Erin crouched next to Orla and tried to get a glimpse of the girl’s face under all those curls. “What happened?”

Orla was quiet for a few seconds before she cleared her throat and began flipping through the pictures again. “Michelle just got upset that I was taking too long to take the pictures and she wanted to go home.”

Erin knew her cousin was lying, Orla was good at almost everything except lying. That’s the one and only thing she was never able to pull off. Most people thought that Orla was this weird and mysterious being, but to Erin she was so easy to read. Growing up together sure did help her figure that girl out. Another thing she knew was that it’s better to not press Orla to say anything, it only puts her in a bad mood. She comes around eventually on her own if you’re patient enough.

“Fine, come with me then.” The blonde took her cousin’s hand and gently pulled it. Orla finally looked up at Erin and gave her a confused look. “To the party, dummy. Michelle would’ve shown up by now if she was coming with me, and you need a distraction anyway.”  
Orla thought about it. It sure sounded like a good idea since she had spent the first half of the day sitting around and moping. Maybe a distraction would help keep things off her mind. And yeah it’s a John Paul party (his band really sucks) but they always have nice food at those things.

“Alright I’ll come with you, but we’re not staying past midnight and please don’t make those weird constipated faces you make at John Paul.” Erin nodded and dragged her cousin off with her to her house, happy that Orla decided to join her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unlike a Jenny Joyce party that’s usually held at her gigantic mansion, a John Paul party is held at a concert venue where teenagers come to drink and do drugs and listen to weird bands play really bad songs. It’s really not Erin’s type of scene, the loud and intense atmosphere was more Michelle’s and Erin just tends to tag along with her. Orla on the other hand, is a bit like a chameleon in the way that anything she’s around she adapts to, there’s nothing that phases that girl.

The girls had gotten ready at Erin’s and decided to show up ‘fashionably late’ according to Erin, and Orla found out that it means to show up around ten o’ clock. Orla decided to wear high-waisted jeans with a purple tank top and an over sized jean jacket, and Erin took so long to pick an outfit only to decide on wearing some basic jean shorts and a t-shirt she had bought in Paris as a souvenir. Both girls had their hair down and immediately regretted it as soon as they walked into the venue, it was so humid it practically felt like you were breathing water in.

Inside the venue, it was mostly just a very large and dark room, already infested with sweaty teenagers. There was strobe lights and laser lights and honestly too many different kinds of lights. The band was already blaring their angsty music and there was fog machines going full blast into a room that honestly didn’t need any less visibility. Orla and Erin held hands as they tried to make their way through the packed crowd and came to a stop when they found a corner of the room that wasn’t as crowded. Orla looked around the room and admired the sweaty teenagers head banging to the extremely loud music as they jumped around, she was quite impressed that they were able to do that without passing out. She smirked at how silly it looked before she noticed that Erin had been trying to say something to her. The taller girl could see Erin’s mouth move but couldn’t hear anything at all. The blonde noticed that Orla had no idea what she was saying so she pulled her cousin close to her and cupped a hand up to Orla’s ear before practically yelling into it.

“I said that John Paul’s band is about to be done playing soon and when it does, I’m going to go look for him. Think you’ll be okay being by yourself for a bit?” Erin pulled back to look at Orla and the girl nodded back. “Alright, I’ll only be gone ten minutes and I’ll come back. Don’t go anywhere without me.” Both girls nodded at each other and with a thumb’s up from Orla, Erin was off.

John Paul’s horrible band played for another solid minute or two and just like Erin had said, they finished and left the stage. The crowd was now dispersing and the room wasn’t as packed as it was moments ago due to people taking breaks to go outside to smoke, some couples went into the bathrooms (ew) and others just went to go get drinks at some tables Orla hadn’t been able to see earlier. The tall girl had remembered the reason she even tagged along on this horrible adventure and sauntered over to the snack tables only to be met with disappointment. Their snack budget must have been low this time around because usually they have huge bowls of chips and cookies and tons of drinks. All Orla found was some almost-empty bags of pretzels (pretzels at a concert? really?) and the usual bottles of beer and liquor.

Orla felt a bit disappointed but she decided a beer would have to make do. She walked back to her corner and was sipping from her miserably warm beer as she watched some guy jump onto the small makeshift ‘stage.’ He messed around with some equipment and introduced himself as a DJ with some weird and stupid name into the mic, causing everyone to start crowding the room again and he began playing music. It wasn’t really good music per se, but it was better than what John Paul had been playing. It was your typical nightclub type of music, heavy on the bass and the beat drops, and it’s so loud you can feel it rattling your insides. Orla couldn’t tell if it was the beer or not but she was starting to actually enjoy herself. She made a pact with herself that she would deal with her feelings tomorrow and she was going to have a good time tonight if it killed her.

One more sip from her beer bottle and Orla realized that she had finished it. The tall girl shrugged to herself and walked back to where the beers were to grab another. She was musing about the fact that warm beer is probably the worst thing you could ever drink when she realized some guy next to her had been talking to her. He was about her height and had shiny brown hair and pretty dark eyes, from what she could see anyway. He smiled and leaned in closer to Orla’s ear and began speaking.

“I was asking if you were having any fun.” He leaned back and waited for Orla to respond and she simply nodded and pointed to her beer bottle with a smile. The boy laughed and leaned back in. “You want to have an even better time?” Orla quickly pulled back and was about to walk away when she noticed he was brandishing a small plastic bag containing multi-colored pills. The boy noticed her hesitation and leaned in once more. “It’s on the house.” He held the bag up to Orla, as if to ask her one more time.

Now, Orla would like to think that she at least considered the dangers of doing drugs in an unfamiliar setting with no one that she knew around to look after her, and she actually did for a second, but all of that went out the window as soon as she saw a small pink pill shaped like a seashell. The boy caught her eyeing the pretty pink pill and smirked, handing it over and giving her a nod as he walked off.

Orla expected the pill to taste sweet or even sour, but it just tasted like a bad aspirin so she swallowed it as fast as she could. A couple of songs passed and Orla felt nothing, and then it hit her out of nowhere. The music went from being loud to absolutely booming, the lights got ten times brighter and the whole room felt like a sauna. The songs were suddenly so appealing to Orla and she tried her best to walk in a straight line towards the dancing crowd. The room was now so many degrees hotter than it previously was, and Orla couldn’t figure out if the music was actually being distorted or if her hearing was also fucked up.

An enchanting song came on and amidst all of the fog and the flashing lights, Orla danced to music that was all too loud and not loud enough. The music moved through her and she felt like she could do anything in the world. She swirled her hips around at one particularly pleasant part of the song and felt someone standing behind her. Orla figured it must’ve been someone that had bumped into her and didn’t bother to look. The song kept hammering itself into her eardrums and she kept letting the music move her without question. Another swirl of her hips and she once again felt someone behind her and right when she had made her mind up to turn around, two arms reached around from behind her and held onto her hips. Orla didn’t lose her rhythm as she reached down to touch the hands that were placed on her hips and was met with soft and cold hands. The song slowed down into a loud and deep bass beat and soft hands fully pulled Orla back into the person standing behind her. A forehead rested on Orla’s temple and Orla felt breathing on her neck. She didn’t stop dancing and kept her grip on the soft hands, leading them lower on her waist. Lips graced Orla’s ear and soft hands focused on keeping her from swaying too much.

“You’re rollin’, aren’t you?” Orla was trying to decipher what that even meant when the hands turned her so that she was now facing whoever was behind her. Under the extremely overwhelming strobe lights and amongst the sea of dancing people stood a slender figure. The figure had dark brown medium-length hair and was wearing black skinny jeans and a lacy black top with fishnet sleeves. A light that flashed across their faces in a fraction of a second revealed to Orla that this girl had a really nice face. She smiled and raised her perfect eyebrows. “I’ll take that as a yes, then.” Orla cleared her throat and hoped that whatever came out of her mouth would at least sound like English.

“You’re so blurry.” The girl chuckled at the weird comment and kept her hands on Orla’s hips to make sure she didn’t loose her balance.

“And you’re really hot,” the girl noted, looking at Orla’s extremely sweaty forehead and wondering how she hadn’t passed out wearing a heavy jean jacket inside this loud and smelly place.

“Thank you very much, so are you.”

The girl chuckled and shook her head.  
“No, like actually hot. You’re sweating like crazy. I’m going to take your jacket off, okay?” The girl quickly slipped the jacket off of Orla and threw it over her own shoulder. She put one arm around Orla’s waist and started leading her to a less crowded part of the room.  
“Who did you come here with?”

“My cousin Erin, she’s really nice but a little annoying sometimes.” Orla giggled at her own comment, causing the girl holding her to laugh with her when suddenly their walk was cut short.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Orla recognized the voice and she watched as Michelle walked up and pushed the mysterious girl away from her. Tons of emotions came to the surface as soon as Orla made eye contact with those green eyes but the other girl spoke up before Orla could.

“I’m trying to get her to her cousin, she’s rolling out of her fucking mind. What the fuck’s wrong with you?”

Michelle rushed up to Orla and grabbed her face, noticing Orla’a eyes were off. “What the fuck did you give her?!”

“I didn’t give her shit.”

“Bullshit,” Michelle yelled and turned back to Orla. “I just saw Erin walk by a minute ago, come with me.” Michelle grabbed Orla’s hand and the other girl quickly stepped in.

“I’m not letting you take her, she’s staying with me.” The girl stepped up and took Orla’s hand out of Michelle’s, who began to stare daggers at the girl.

“Here’s the thing, I actually know her, she’s my friend. I’m not walking around like some creep, trying to take advantage of drugged girls like you are.” Michelle reached for Orla’s hand once more and this time, Orla pulled free from her grasp.

“I wasn’t drugged, Michelle. I just took some pill a guy gave me for free. And I’m not going with you, I’m staying here with...” Orla paused and looked over at the girl holding her, realizing she hadn’t asked for the girl’s name in the past half hour of them basically dry humping. Real classy, McCool.

“Blaire.” Both girls smiled at one another. “I showed you mine, now you show me yours.” Orla gave the girl next to her a funny look and then realized what she meant.

“Oh, mine is Orla.”

Michelle felt that this friendly introduction was taking a little too long and she felt her face getting hot.

“That’s grand and all but I’m still not leaving her with you. We don’t even know you and Orla’s too fucked up to realize she’s agreeing to go off with a stranger,” Michelle spat.

“And how the fuck am I to know that you’re not the weirdo trying to bring a random disoriented girl back home with you?”

Both girls were now in a stand off and Michelle was a bit surprised that this Blaire girl wasn’t backing down. Blaire was being very defiant but she sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to cower down.

“Why the fuck would I want to take her home? She’s my friend, you fuckin’ creep.”

“Oh please. I mean, sure I don’t even know you but I’m not stupid. I know dyke drama when I see it.” Michelle’s unbothered facade quickly faded away and she was now visibly upset.

“Fuck you.” Michelle took a step forward and got right in the girl’s face who seemed to be enjoying the fact that she struck a nerve with Michelle. Blaire was brandishing an amused smirk while Orla was quickly trying to think of what to say to get Michelle to back off but her brain was too busy trying to keep the room from spinning. A few seconds passed and right when Orla was about to speak, a blonde head of hair appeared behind Michelle.

“Oh thank god, I’ve been looking everywhere for you both! Who’s this?” No one said a word and Orla was the only one to even acknowledge Erin, giving her a goofy smile and reaching out to to embrace the blonde in a bear hug.

“Ohh, I missed you. Your hair’s so soft! Hi, Erin.” The blonde struggled to pull herself away from Orla and once she did, she noticed that this behavior was weird, even for Orla. Erin decided not to engage and instead looked to Michelle for an explanation but her friend was still in a weird staring content with the random girl so she reached out and smacked Michelle on the arm.

“Hey, what’s all this about?,” she said pointing to Orla who was beside her and nuzzling her face into Erin’s hair. The smack to the arm brought Michelle back from her struggle for dominance with Blaire, and she decided that dealing with Orla was more important.

“She’s like really high right now. Like, absolutely fuckin’ off-the-rails high. She said she took some pill from some bastard so I think that was definitely from Luke, he’s always handing that shit out like it’s free hotel mints.” Erin’s eyes went wide at this information and Michelle sensed she was going to go off on a stupid and boring lecture to Orla about drugs so she stepped in before Erin even opened her mouth. “I know you’re going to want to give her shit about it right now and that’s grand and all but she won’t give a shit so save it for another day. She’s too busy rubbing your hair onto her face right now, so she’s not too worried about morals at the moment.” Erin nodded and kept a serious expression on her face as she held onto a swaying Orla.

“So, you’re her cousin? I found her dancing, insanely hot by the way, in the middle of the crowd but then I realized she was rolling so I decided to help her out because she was by herself. I was going to take her to you but Miss Security Guard over there,” she gestured at Michelle, “thought that I was trying to murder her or some shit. In what kind of sick world does someone do any harm to someone as beautiful as Orla?” The mention of her name caught Orla’s attention and she glanced over at Blaire who in turn winked at her.

“Right, well thank you so much. I really do appreciate it but we have to go.” With that, Erin helped Orla weave her way through the crowd and outside the venue, followed closely by Michelle. Orla found it easy to balance herself by leaning on the brick wall outside, with Erin standing by her side making sure she didn’t fall over. James appeared from practically out of nowhere and startled Erin.

“Hi, I was looking for you guys in there. Michelle told me to ask John Paul to give us a ride home and he said his friend would be able to take us home in a few minutes.”

“What are you talking about? Since when were you even here?” Erin turned to both James and Michelle, not having known that Michelle was at this party, much less with James.

“I brought him with me, I didn’t have anyone else to come with. When I saw Orla dancing like someone out of a Madonna music video, I told James to find us a ride home and went off to save this one from leaving with a fuckin’ stranger. And what the fuck were you playing at anyway?,” she said as she walked to stand in front of Orla. “You pop molly and you’re suddenly the Great fuckin’ Gatsby? That girl could’ve taken you out and left you in the middle of the street, or worse.” Orla rolled her eyes and kept her gaze on the ground.

“That’s enough, Michelle.”

“No it’s not, Erin. She took drugs at a fucking party with literally none of us even knowing where she was!”

“I thought we were saving the lecture for another day.” Erin gave Michelle a look, asking her to tone it down.

“Fuck the lecture. She could’ve gotten hurt or even wors-“

“So what? Now you care?!”

Everyone turned to look at Orla, surprised at the fact that the usually mellow and quiet girl had just yelled. Michelle, caught off guard, didn’t say a word.

“You can’t choose when and where you suddenly want to care about me, Michelle. That’s not fair.” Orla’s eyes started tearing up and Erin began running a hand on her back to try to soothe her.

“It’s okay, Orla. You’re not thinking clearly right now, just sit down for a bit and-“

“No, Erin. She wants to abandon me and then come back the next day and pretend like everything’s fine? Well, it’s not.”

Michelle’s eyes glistened under the streetlight and she shook her head, walking over to stand next to James and away from Orla. All four of them stood there, backs to the wall and not speaking a word for what felt like hours until John Paul’s friend, Joey, came around the front of the building in his car. Michelle quickly walked towards the car and claimed her seat in the front with Joey, leaving Orla, Erin and James to sit in the back. The ride was mostly quiet except for every now and then when James would speak up to tell Joey where to turn and what streets to take. Because of the silence, everyone heard when Michelle sniffled and four heads turned to look at her, but she hid her face and did nothing but gaze out the car window and muttered loud enough for everyone to hear that it was her ‘stupid fucking allergies.’

Michelle’s house was the closest so that’s what the first stop was. As soon as the car was parked, Michelle got out of the car and rushed into her house, slamming the front door. James stayed behind to make sure Joey knew where the girl’s house was located, thanking him and giving Orla and Erin a sympathetic smile and a wave goodbye. He stood on the sidewalk and watched Joey and the girls drive off, asking himself when exactly it was that Michelle started to care so much about Orla.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following Monday morning was awkward, for lack of a better word. The bus ride to school was quiet and Clare and James were the only ones engaging in conversation. Clare noticed how serious the girls were being and jokingly asked if she had missed anything good, prompting James to quickly change the subject and distracting her for the rest of the ride by asking about how her grades were going.

After arriving at the school, Michelle mentioned some lie about being late for class and took off. She knew that trying to stay away from Orla was inevitable since they shared the same group of friends, but she decided she would figure it out later.

Everything felt so different to her since that day at the park. One of her best friends kissed her. How do you react to that? Obviously not by leaving her planted in the middle of the park without even saying goodbye, but Jesus, Michelle was never good at this shit. She’s not exactly known for her affinity for love and feelings. She’s a teenage girl with hormones through the roof but what she felt that day, she hasn’t ever felt before. It was like her heart set itself on fire and she wanted nothing more but to kiss Orla back. She’s been longing for that kiss since Paris and maybe even before Paris. But what happens after that? She has no clue. All she knows is that Orla makes her feel things that are all completely new and terrifying. Why do those damn romance novels that Erin reads all the time make this stuff seem so easy? It’s complicated as shit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michelle was checking her make-up at her locker and grabbed the books she would be needing for her next class. What a god awful way to start the week, she thought. Thankfully they were nearing the end of the year, and god knows she could use a break.

She was making her way through the hallways to her class when she rounded a corner and came across a huge bulletin board on the wall, plastered with pictures. The board was labeled ‘Outstanding Final Entries’ and Michelle stopped in her tracks when she saw it. It was right there in the middle of all the other photos. Orla must’ve taken it while she was ‘fixing’ the jammed film, and Michelle quietly chuckled at the fact that she fell for Orla’s little trick.

It was a picture of her that day at the park. Michelle is sitting on the grass, looking down with a peaceful smile on her face as she inspects a bright yellow dandelion she’s holding in one of her hands. The sunset behind her gives the impression of a warm glow emanating from her. The picture was labeled, ‘ _pretty things, beautiful stuff_.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What up, my dudes. First off, don’t do drugs (that you got from someone you don’t even know) and especially don’t do them in the middle of a party where you don’t know anyone. That’s a bad idea all around. Anyway, Louisa (Orla) is a really good photographer and I thought I’d incorporate that part of the actress to the character. It seemed like a good fit. But yeah I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you think about Blaire. She’s gonna stick around!


	5. but friends don't know the way you taste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> waffles, first times and other fun things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo wassup there's implied sexy times in this chapter here so be advised and all that good stuff, it's not graphic or anything

"Please don't order more than two things, Orla. I don't have enough money to buy you the entire menu." Erin gave her cousin a stern warning before making her way into Finnoula's, smells of grease, vinegar and high cholesterol invading both girls' nostrils. 

"But today was our last day of school, Erin, we should at least celebrate a little!" Orla's suggestion was met with a deadpan look from Erin and right when both cousins were about to start debating their own arguments, two hands reached out from behind Erin and pushed her forwards, almost tripping into the wall. 

"Boo!," yelled Michelle, chuckling as an annoyed Erin gave her a death stare. Michelle was joined by Clare and James who had just walked in and soon the usual group had formed up, all stifling smiles as Erin gathered herself with an annoyed look on her flushed face.

"Was that seriously necessary?"

Michelle answered with a nod, "So, what big summer plans are we going to get up to now, girls?" Michelle looked around her group of friends and her smile almost faded when her eyes landed on Orla.

Both of the girls hadn't had an actual real conversation since that one night at the party, and Michelle was worried that it was going to stay that way for a long while. She wanted to try to talk to Orla but she was quite frankly still a little pissed off at her. Michelle was afraid that once she sat down to have a serious conversation with Orla, the anger would rise up and she would end up saying something mean and stupid. As for Orla, she didn't seem to mind much about their current situation. Anytime they made eye contact, it was like Orla wasn't even affected by what had happened and Michelle didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. One thing's for sure though, that whole subject is too sensitive to even try to bring up for now. 

"Other than the annual camping trip, nothing much," answered Erin. The group's annual summer tradition came to mind and they all shared anticipating smiles with the exception of James, who had no idea what the girls were even talking about.

"Annual camping trip?" The girls turned to James, confused for a moment before Clare realized that the boy hadn't spent a summer with them yet.

"Yes, James. Every single year, Erin's parents take us camping for an entire weekend and it's honestly the best thing we get to do all summer!" The group of girls could barely contain their excitement. 

"What's best is that our parents let us make it feel like we're camping all on our own and we get to camp in a whole section of our own, our own tents and everything!" Orla joined in, giving James an ecstatic wide-eyed look that was starting to make the boy feel a little uneasy. The girls squealed and began brainstorming ideas for all sorts of snacks that they should bring along this year before getting interrupted by Finnoula. 

"Any one of you little rascals gonna order now or should I go ahead and kick you out?!" The gang practically stood at attention and promptly followed orders, walking up to the counter to begin ordering. Michelle went first, never the one to wait, and was followed by Erin. Orla was trying to make her mind up about what to order when she heard the shop's door ring and a familiar face walked into the shop.

The girl looked like she was bored out of her mind or annoyed beyond belief or maybe both. She was wearing a loose black blouse that hung off of her shoulders, a black skirt with black fishnet tights and black platform boots. She had a bundled up mess of black bracelets accessorizing both of her wrists and Orla wondered if the girl has to take every single one of them off before she takes a bath. She wore heavy eye liner and smokey eye shadow that made her big pretty eyes seem a bit more intimidating. As soon as the girl walked in, she scanned the small shop and made her way to line up behind the girls currently ordering at the counter. 

"Orla? Are you gonna order or not?!" Erin pulled Orla by her blazer sleeve to get her attention, but the taller girl kept her eyes locked on the girl standing behind them. "Suit yourself, then. That'll be all thank you so much, Finnoula." The older woman dismissed the girls with a grunt and left to the back of the kitchen. Michelle began scolding James for ordering the 'nastiest' thing on the menu, but Erin gave him credit for at least _finally_ ordering something, the less angry Finnoula gets, the better. None of the girls noticed when Orla left the group and walked, a bit dazed, towards the girl she had been staring at for a while now. The girl didn't acknowledge Orla walking up to her at first, as she had been staring up at the menu overhead, and Orla figured she should at least speak first to get her attention, like a normal person.

"You have my jacket." Blue-grey eyes darted to meet brown and Orla realized that the girl probably had no idea what she was talking about.

"Sorry?" It sounded more like an aggressive demand than an actual question and Orla quickly spoke up.

"We danced at that party, I was high and... you were pretty... _Are_ pretty." Blaire's lips rose at the corners of her mouth, smiling more with her eyes than with her mouth. 

"Right, I remember now. I do have your jacket. I had asked around for you after you took off but none of those poser wankers knew where you had gone. It was like Cinderella and her glass slipper, except you left me a heavy denim jacket that smells of sweat and lavender perfume." Blaire gave Orla a once-over, noticing the uniform and tilted her head. "Catholic girl?" 

Orla nodded, "Yes. Our last day of school was today." 

"Ah, I've been with your kind before. You're all cheeky, and just a tad bit too naughty, if I'm being honest." 

Orla leaned in as she spoke in a not so quiet whisper, "as in,  _girls_? You've dated catholic girls?" Blaire shrugged her shoulders, because the answer is an obvious  _yes, plenty actually,_ and before the girl could elaborate, Erin's voice rose behind Orla.

"Orla, do you think we should prioritize s'mores or hot dogs? Because last year-" Erin stopped mid sentence as she turned and her eyes fell on Blaire. No one in the group said a word, mostly not sure of what to say but also not wanting to bring up the events that transpired that other night. Clare, on the other hand, was oblivious to the tension since she hadn't been there that night and spoke up.

"Who's she?" Orla stepped over so the girls could get a good look at her and gestured to Blaire with a hand.

"This is Blaire, meet Clare." The small blonde smiled and reached out to shake Blaire's hand, only to be met with a smirk from the girl as she raised her eyebrows teasingly. "And Blaire, you already know everyone else from that other night but I'll introduce them to you anyway. That's James back there, he's English." James, one of the friendliest of the group, gave Blaire a friendly smile and waved. 

Blaire found the gesture endearing and waved back, "Hi, James. I'm from England as well. Bristol, actually." James looked around at his friends, a bit dumbfounded with a bizarre and confused look on his face and raised his hands in the air when no one reacted. 

"Wait a second, she's English and none of you thought to mention that? No one's going to make any sort of joke at all? Is this actually happening right now?" The girls didn't acknowledge James and kept their attention on Blaire, who zoned in on James. 

"What's there to make jokes about?" Blaire furrowed her thick, perfectly shaped eyebrows at James which was enough to get the boy to settle down and cower behind the girls.

"Nothing at all, sorry." Michelle noticed how quickly Blaire had intimidated James and couldn't help but feel slightly protective of the boy. 

"Anyway, this is my cousin Erin who I'm sure you remember," Orla gestured towards her cousin who smiled and nodded at Blaire. There was an awkward pause and as she got to Michelle, Orla quickly turned to Blaire, "and yeah, I'm sure you remember the rest." Michelle scowled, annoyed by the rude attempt at an introduction from Orla and even more annoyed by the fact that Blaire had noticed and chuckled at this. 

"Not to be rude or anything but where did you all meet Blaire?" Clare directed the question at Erin but Michelle, overcome with adrenaline, answered before Erin could.

"At a party we went to the other night, Blaire and Orla were practically bangin' with their clothes on in the middle of the dance floor." Michelle shot Blaire a look, who in turn shrugged her shoulders and raised her eyebrows suggestively. Orla rolled her eyes at Michelle's brash comment and decided to break the tension her friend had created. 

"Anyway, s'mores definitely, Erin." Orla answered her cousin's question from earlier, "I could do without actual food for the entire trip and just live off of s'mores." Blaire turned her attention to Orla, taken aback by the weird comment.

"I'm sorry, what did I miss?" 

"We're going camping next weekend and we take our snacks very seriously. We stockpile them like we're saving up for the apocalypse and then when we go camping we just have an absolute free for all. Oh and speaking of, you should come with us!" Orla jumped to grab Blaire's hands and waited for the girl to reply. 

"As fun as a weekend in the middle of nowhere with you sounds, I don't think your friends are too keen on having a stranger tag along for the trip." Orla's shoulders dropped as she let go of Blaire's hands and she turned to her group of friends who had a mix of expressions on their faces.

"You guys wouldn't mind, would you?" Orla looked between her friends, taking in their reactions. They all looked either unsure or confused, with the exception of Michelle who had the most _are you fuckin' kidding me_ look on her face. Erin felt a little bad for not really wanting Blaire on the camping trip but as she thought about it, she was starting to come around to the idea. Things were weird with Orla and Michelle's drama, and if Blaire tagged along then Orla would have someone else to focus on and therefore less of a possibility of drama with Michelle, and god knows they all need a break. 

"I think it'd be fun to have Blaire come along, but we would also need to make sure Ma's okay with it, Orla." Erin was met with smiles from Blaire and Orla and an even more exasperated look from Michelle.

"You're absolutely right, Erin. Let me worry about that, I'll ask her myself. We'll do it right now!" Orla grabbed Blaire's hand and waited for the girl's response. 

"I can do right now, I can always eat greasy over-priced food another time," Blaire said with a playful smile. Orla nodded once more and quickly waved her friends goodbye before she left the shop, dragging Blaire behind her. 

Michelle turned to Erin with her arms crossed over her chest, "What the fuck was that about? You seriously think it's a good idea to have her come with us?" 

Erin shrugged as she leaned over to rest her arm on the counter, "She seems nice." 

Michelle rolled her eyes and scoffed, turning to the front door and watched two figures through the glass slowly get smaller and smaller as they ran down the road, long hair flowing in the wind, hand in hand.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 “So, that’s why I hadn’t seen you around, we go to different schools," Blaire strolled on the sidewalk beside Orla, "I like your uniform.” 

Brown eyes fluttered as they met blue and Orla self-consciously smoothed a hand down her tie.  “It’s not bad, I wish the color wasn’t green though. There’s tons of colors better than green, I would've liked magenta.” The girls rounded a corner and Orla stepped onto the curb, walking with her arms outstretched to balance herself, Blaire watched her attentively.

 “There’s not much of a difference between you when you're sober and you when you're high, is there?” Blaire chuckled when Orla lost her balance and jumped off of the curb to stop herself from falling on her face. “D’you take pills often?” 

 “Not really, that night when we met was the first.” Orla fixed her eyes on the sidewalk, trying not to step on any cracks. 

 “Did you like it?” Blaire's raspy voice had a hint of mischief.

 Orla furrowed her eyebrows deep in thought, “I did, It was like I was finally able to see things the way I see them in my mind.” Blaire nodded, coming to the conclusion that Orla was going to be just as complex as she had initially seemed the night they met. 

A few moments passed and they walked quietly, enjoying the afternoon sun. After walking a few more blocks, they rounded another corner and Orla broke the silence. 

 “That’s my house down there," Orla pointed towards one of the many houses lined down the street. "Well, we’re really going to Erin’s house but she lives next door to my house.” 

 “What’s our plan here? Are we just going to tell them that we barely know each other and that I’m coming along or do you have something in mind?” Orla knew she wasn’t very good at lying but she figured she would probably have to.

 “I’ll figure something out, just follow my lead.” Both girls made their way up the pathway to the house and made their way in.

 Blaire couldn't help but think it was a bit sweet that this girl she barely knew was willing to try so hard to get her to come along on a weekend camping trip. “See? I told you, you catholic girls-” Orla audibly cleared her throat to cut Blaire off and let their presence be known to the inhabitants of the house. 

 Aunt Mary was sitting in the kitchen feeding Baby Ana while Granda Joe and Orla’s Mammy were in the living room having an animated conversation about something on the television. Orla waltzed into the kitchen and offered a seat to Blaire who jokingly clutched at her chest and curtsied before taking her seat. Orla rounded the table and made her way to the fridge to grab some orange juice for Blaire and herself.

 Mary looked a little taken aback by the unusual company and gave Orla an incredulous look, wondering if she was going to say anything about her new friend.

 “Alright there, Orla, love?” Mary then turned her attention to Blaire, who didn’t seem offended by the obvious staring and politely waved at Mary. 

Orla grabbed two glasses and set them onto the table, pouring them almost to the brim full of orange juice. “We’re pretty grand ourselves, aren’t we Blaire?” Orla nodded at Blaire and both girls shared a smile. “Mary, this is Blaire and Blaire, this is my aunt Mary.” There was a small pause and Mary hesitantly reached a hand out towards Blaire. The girl practically forced herself to shake hands, something she wasn’t a fan of. Blaire tried her hardest to force a pleasant smile and she worried that maybe it was just making her seem like a creepy stranger, so she spoke.

 “Nice to meet you.” Mary almost jumped out of her seat, startled by the girl's deep and raspy voice.

 “Pleasure’s mine, love. What brings you both around? I thought you were with the girls at Finnoula’s?” Mary turned to Orla, noticing that none of the other girls had come back home with Orla. 

 “They’re still eating at Finnoula’s, don't you worry, Mary. We have much more serious matters to take care of here, don’t we, Blaire?” Orla took a seat next to Blaire and opposite of Mary. “See, Blaire here, is one of those devil worshipers.” Mary’s eyes about popped out of their eye sockets and Blaire looked over at Orla, wondering what she was playing at. 

 “I’m sorry, love. I must’ve misheard you, she’s a what?” Orla took three huge gulps out of her orange juice and calmly placed the cup down onto the table. 

 “I said she’s a Satanist, Mary. Well, former Satanist. See, Blaire here is actually from England and I don't know if you've heard but Satan is gaining many fans over there. But now that she lives here in Derry, she’s coming around to our Catholic ways. Isn’t that right Blaire?” Orla gave her friend a look and Blaire smiled.

 “Yes, I'm now a former Satanist and I’ve begun to fix the errors of my ways. I’m no longer sacrificing goats every Wednesday evening, instead I’m going to church every Sunday and I’ve truly seen the light, Mary.” Orla reached out to place a hand on Blaire’s shoulder and both girls pretended to share a powerful moment while Mary looked at both of them as if they had just grown an extra limb.

 “That’s... very good to hear, Blaire.” 

 “And that brings me to my next point. We need her to come along with us on the camping trip, Mary. I think it would do her very well, wouldn’t it Blaire?” Blaire nodded and pretended to rub a tear from her eye. “If she comes along, the girls and I can teach her more about the Lord, Mary. We would be doing a service to God and to Blaire. It’s a two for one deal come straight from the heavens.” 

 Mary had become accustomed to Orla's odd behavior but this time the girl was acting weirder than usual. She figured that maybe Orla had gone on a candy binge earlier, sugar always causes her to act funny, and decided not to pry. “Sure. Blaire can come along, dear. Make sure you ask your mom for permission, alright Blaire?” Mary gave the girl a firm look and her signature warm smile.

 Blaire nodded back, “will do, Mary.” 

Orla was soon worked up with excitement at the thought of her new friend tagging along on the trip, giving Mary a thumb’s up, grabbing Blaire’s hand and leading her out of the house. The girls stepped outside, feeling the warm sun on their fair skin and Orla glanced back and forth on street for a moment, taking in the scenery. “So, do we go ask your mom right now or do you want to do it later?” Orla nonchalantly asked as she stepped down the three steps leading down to the pathway in the front yard. Blaire trailed behind, not answering the question and Orla stopped, turning around to face the girl behind her. “Well, we do have to ask her for permission, right?” Blaire carelessly shrugged her shoulders, eyes glancing around at nothing in particular. Orla noticed the look of disinterest in her face was saying _ no, __not really_.  “Not even your dad?” 

 Blaire zoned out, as if she had just remembered something. Orla noticed and mentally scolded herself for prying too much, Erin had once told her that asking too many questions can be rude. Blaire’s mind came back to her as soon as it had wandered away and the girl audibly cleared her throat. 

 “You said you live next door?” She turned to both sides of the Quinn household, looking for which one was Orla’s. 

 “Yeah, it’s the one over there.” Orla pointed towards her house, not taking her eyes off of Blaire, noticing how quickly the girl’s mood had changed. 

 “Neat,” Blaire’s heavy black boots stomped down the rest of the pathway and towards Orla’s house, giving the curly-haired girl she left behind a flirty over-the-shoulder look. Orla inhaled deeply, puffing out her cheeks as she exhaled and went to catch up to Blaire.

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Orla slowly led Blaire into her room, waiting for the girl to fully walk in before shutting the door.Blaire was taken by all of the stuff erratically hanging on the walls and lying around the room. There was posters on the walls of your regular boy band and some TV show posters, others were just animal posters. The wallpaper was baby blue with multicolored flowers sprinkled all over. Orla’s bed was really big, and there was about five or six pillows thrown over a pastel purple comforter. There was a whole corner of the room piled with a mountain of stuffed animals. A big window with dark blue curtains gave a nice view of the streets outside, and next to the window was a big desk covered in scattered pages full of doodles and intricate drawings. A banner hung above Orla’s bed reading, ‘House of McCool.’”

 Blaire chuckled at the banner and walked around the room, trying to take everything in without getting too distracted. She walked up to the desk and sat down on the wooden chair in front of it, pulling sheets of paper out from the pile and inspecting the drawings. One that caught her eye was a detailed drawing of two people kissing intimately. Orla went to stand behind the girl, looking over the drawing along with Blaire.

 “That’s a sculpture I saw when we went on a trip to Paris. I really liked it and I decided to draw it, I kept seeing it in my mind,” Orla leaned on the chair, looking at the rest of the drawings on her desk and making a note to clean her room more often.

 “It’s beautiful, I didn’t know you were an artist.” Blaire kept her eyes on the paper she was carefully holding, looking over it with admiration. 

 “I wouldn’t really say that,” Orla shrugged and started to slowly walk around her room, picking up whatever was out of place and laying around, trying to tidy up a bit.

 “I’m being serious, this is really good.” Blaire organized the sheets of paper into a nice pile as she looked over them and set them aside. She reached down to open one of the desk’s drawers and found it was filled with tons of pictures, film and a camera. Blaire ran her fingers through the pictures scattered around the drawer, finding that most of them were of Orla or flowers and fields. She pulled out a picture of a silhouette with a glowing sunlight behind her. The long curls gave away that it was Orla, who was wearing a beret, looking up at the sky as she held an umbrella.

“Can I have this? I’m going to keep it either way so don’t answer.” Blaire looked across the room at Orla with a playful smirk, holding the picture up. The curly-haired girl walked over, looking over the picture with a curiosity.

 “Oh, yeah that’s fine,” she nodded with a smile. Blaire smiled back and placed the picture down over the desk. Orla noticed the desk drawer was still open and leaned down to grab her camera, pulling it out. “Come stand over by the window,” she said as she pulled Blaire by the hand to stand up. 

 “Are you trying to get me to pose for you for free, Curls?” Blaire came to a stop in front of the massive window, placing her hands on her hips and squinting at Orla. 

 “Please?” Orla held up her camera to her chest and gave Blaire a pleading look. Blaire pretended to think about it for a few seconds before giving in.

 “Fine, but only because you’re so cute.” 

Orla rolled her eyes and laughed, “Right, so I don’t know, do whatever you’d like and I’ll just flick away.”

 Blaire nodded and began adjusting her outfit to make sure everything looked good. Orla quickly adjusted her camera and waited for a thumbs up from Blaire to start. Blaire turned to her side and stood in profile, leaning her head back and facing the ceiling, hands running through her hair. Orla quickly noticed Blaire's poses seemed so natural and easy, like every pose she was doing was second nature to the girl. As Orla kept taking different shots, Blaire reached down to pull out a small tin box from her pocket, pulling a rolled joint out of it. She reached down into her pocket again and pulled out a lighter, lighting her joint and taking long drags, blowing a thick cloud of smoke at the camera. The smoke quickly invaded Orla’s lungs and the girl put her camera down as she started coughing. 

 “You alright there? Sorry about that, Curls,” Blaire stepped towards Orla and put a hand on her back. After a few seconds, Orla’s small coughing fit stopped and she sat down on the edge of her bed.

 “That’s very strong, almost like sniffing gasoline.” 

Blaire smirked and took another puff, blowing the smoke upwards and away from Orla. “Never smoked before?” Orla shook her head and Blaire sat down next to her.

 “Here, just inhale slowly and hold it in for a bit so you can get the full effect,” Blaire held up the joint and Orla carefully took it. She held it up to her lips and did as she was told, only being able to hold it in for half a second before coughing the smoke out. Blaire laughed as she took the joint back, putting her hand on the girl’s thigh as she got herself back together.

 “It’ll get easier the more you do it, don’t worry.” Orla nodded and looked around, realizing there was now thin clouds of smoke floating about the room. 

 “That wasn’t so bad, I’ll have to take a few minutes before I have another though,” Orla said, taking a deep breath. Blaire nodded and took a few more puffs, starting to feel the pleasant high. Both girls sat without saying anything, listening to the sound of kids playing outside and cars driving by every now and then. Blaire blew smoke rings into the air, and watched them slowly float away and fade into nothing. 

 “I’m glad we found each other again. I kept thinking and thinking about you after that night. It was really fun and I remember liking that I’d finally found someone else who also doesn’t give a fuck.” Orla looked out the window, taking in everything Blaire was saying. “I don’t do friends or crowds really, everyone’s so into themselves. But, I actually like being around you. You don’t pretend, you’re genuine.” 

 “I can see what you mean about other people, that’s why I only have four friends and one of them is my cousin so that doesn’t really count.” Both girls burst into laughter, the smoke clouds making their way in through their nostrils, making everything hazy in their minds.

 “That’s exactly what I mean, you don’t have a filter, you just say things and you do things. You don’t care about what anyone says.” Blaire raised the joint to her lips and inhaled, releasinga heavy cloud of smoke from her lips into the ceiling. Orla watched intently, licking her lips as the smoke left Blaire’s lips. The girl noticed Orla staring and smirked, holding the joint up for Orla to take. The taller girl quickly remembered the coughing fit from a few minutes prior and bit her lip hesitantly. 

 “You’re scared, aren’t you?” Orla nodded, “That’s alright, I can shotgun it to ya if you’d like.” Blaire was met with a confused look and she smiled, asking herself why she thought Orla would know what shotgunning is. “Come here.” Blaire took a long puff from the joint and held it in as she reached for Orla’s neck and pulled her in, she put a thumb on the girl’s chin and drew her mouth open, blowing the smoke in. Orla inhaled, deciding that this method was much easier and a lot nicer. Blaire pulled back, watching Orla’s reaction carefully. 

 Orla held in the smoke for a few seconds and fully exhaled it. Blaire’s hand remained on her neck and she looked over the girl’s face, taking in her facial features from up close. The weed was slowly starting to have a heavier effect and Orla felt like she had just done ten cartwheels in a row.

 “I like you.” Orla reached up to Blaire’s cheek, running a thumb over her cheekbone. “Pretty.”

 Blaire smirked, “I like you too.” Brown eyes became hypnotized by blue-gray, the sun lay beside them and there was nothing in the world more interesting than what Orla was seeing through Blaire’s eyes. She could almost see the waves in her blue orbs rising and crashing into the pupils in her eyes.

 “It feels like I’m drowning in your eyes.” 

Dark eyelashes fluttered at Orla, “Then come up for air.” Blaire moved her cold hand from Orla’s warm neck to her cheek sprinkled with freckles and started leaning in. 

 Orla wasn’t sure if she was imagining things or not but she could’ve sworn that Blaire’s eyes had turned an even darker shade of blue. Orla closed her eyes as soft, plump lips collided with hers. Soft bursts of electricity ran through her, starting from within her chest to the tips of her fingers. Blaire was clearly a skilled kisser, maneuvering her lips with experienced ease and Orla focused on keeping the rhythm. It felt like their dance the night they had met. Blaire leaned in further, making Orla lean back until her back landed on the bed. Orla’s slender fingers reached up to hold onto Blaire’s face for dear life while the girl above her ran her hands down her slim torso, darting her tongue out to graze Orla’s lips, asking for entry. Orla ran a thumb along a sharp jawline as she opened her mouth, allowing Blaire’s tongue to enter her mouth and impatiently explore it. Orla’s breathing started getting heavier and heavier and Blaire noticed, breaking the kiss.

 “You alright there, babe?” Orla’s eyes lit up as she smiled and brought Blaire’s lips back down to meet hers in another heated kiss. Blaire broke the kiss once more, resting her forehead on Orla’s. 

 “Move up on the bed, Curls.” Orla shimmied towards the center of the bed, followed by Blaire crawling over her and settling herself between Orla’s legs. The two resumed their heated make out session, with one of them giggling into the kiss every now and then, feeling dizzy in the lingering clouds of smoke. 

 After an eternity of breath-taking kisses, the room began to get hot and Orla’s forehead was starting to sweat. Blaire helped Orla slip out of her green blazer, tossing it aside without breaking the kiss. Orla kept a hand on Blaire’s face while the other roamed to hold onto the girl’s neck. Blaire bought a hand up to hold herself up while another reached down and searched around for a bit before finding the zipper on the side of Orla’s skirt and unzipping it, causing the girl below her to freeze. Brown eyes quickly opened to find Blaire’s, and neither of the girls moved. 

 Blaire cleared her throat as she spoke up, “I’m sorry, I thought we were-“ 

 “No, it’s okay. I don’t really know what else I thought was going to happen.” 

Blaire smiled, zipping Orla’s skirt back up.  “I promise I’m not usually this much of an idiot.” Blaire moved a strand of damp hair away from Orla’s forehead, keeping eye contact with the girl below her. “We can just make out and do only that, if that’s what you want.” 

 “I’ve just never done this. You definitely know what you’re doing and I don’t want to ruin your expectations,” Orla finished her sentence with a nervous laugh. 

 “I don’t expect anything from you. If we do this, I’ll be doing it because I want to make you feel good and I promise I won’t even care if you really _do_ end up being a bad shag.” Blaire raised her eyebrows teasingly at Orla who rolled her eyes and laughed. “Seriously, whatever you want to do, it’s fine. If you want we can stop and I can leave right now and leave you alone. Tomorrow we can go out and have lunch at Finnoula’s or go shops or something.” 

Orla shook her head, lightly tightening her grip on Blaire’s hips. “I don’t want you to leave.” Blaire's blue eyes dimmed once more and Orla could no longer see the blue in those orbs. Orla’s hands moved to loosen her tie, lifting her head to slip it off of her. Blaire kept her eyes on Orla’s, who was now unbuttoning her white button up shirt. “Stay.” 

 Blaire slowly nodded back, watching Orla unbutton her shirt at an excruciatingly slow pace, exposing her taut abdomen in the dim light of the sun who had almost completely left. Blaire followed and got up and off of the bed, slowly taking off her clothes. Orla sat up and fully took the shirt off, not losing eye contact with Blaire and reaching over to turn on a lamp on her bedside table, lighting the now dim room with a warm glow. Blaire finished slipping out of her fishnet tights and crawled back on the bed and above Orla, passionately kissing her. Blaire broke the kiss and looked deep into Orla’s eyes for a moment. Orla’s skin flinched slightly when cold fingertips ran down her torso, coming to a stop on the zipper of her skirt. 

 “Are you sure?” 

 Orla ran her hands into Blaire’s hair as she lifted her head up to meet the girl in another heated kiss. Blaire got her answer and swiftly unzipped the green skirt, clumsily slipping it down long, toned legs with some help from Orla who ended up kicking the skirt off of herself and into a corner of the room. 

 The rest of the night was draped with the sounds of bed sheets being ruffled and adorned with moans and whimpers muffled by a hand. Small sighs of pleasure kissed the silver moon, and a single breathy, “Blaire” was the only word that slipped out into the night. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The next morning, rays of sunlight began invading Orla’s eyelids and she remembered why she never sleeps with the curtains drawn. She turned on her side so that her eyes would be safe from the bright light when she heard a giggle come from in front of her. Orla groggily opened her eyes to find Blaire laying on her side, looking intently at her. 

“Creep,” Orla grumbled, shutting her eyes once more to try to go back to sleep. 

 Blaire scoffed at Orla’s playful insult, “Ooh, I like your morning voice. Call me a dirty girl, baby,” she taunted. Orla’s eyes remained closed as a smile spread across her lips. 

 “You’re annoying.”

 “Ohh yeah louder, baby.” Both girls began laughing and Orla finally resigned and opened her eyes. The events of last night came to mind as soon as Orla realized Blaire was naked under the sheets and she no longer wondered why she had felt cold during the night. Blaire noticed Orla was staring at her chest and smiled.

 “Fancy another look, now?” Blaire had the sheets clutched at her chest and playfully began to tug them down, making Orla’s face go beet red. “Not so ‘McCool’ now, are we?” Orla grinned as Blaire reached a hand out and held her chin, leaning in for a soft kiss. The kiss quickly turned into a deeper one and Orla sat up to straddle Blaire, taking the girl by surprise. Blaire grabbed Orla by the waist as the girl on top of her kissed and nipped at her pale neck. It took everything in Blaire to stop Orla, and she pulled back and caught her breath as Orla looked down at her confused. “What are you doing, Orla?” 

 “Its my turn to make you feel good, I know what to do now.” 

 “Slow down on the romanticism there,” Blaire joked. “You don’t have to rush to get the job done, I’m not going anywhere so you don’t have to jump me whenever you find an opening, okay? Do it when it feels right for you.” Blaire reached up to tuck a strand of curls behind Orla’s ear as the girl nodded, and leaned down to resume kissing. 

 Hands began wandering and raspy moans were beginning to find their way out of vocal chords when Orla heard footsteps coming up the stairs. The curly-haired girl immediately pulled away and fell over to her side of the bed, clutching the bed sheets and pulling them up to her bare chest. Blaire was about to ask what the deal was when the bedroom door flew open.

 “There you are! Do you want pancakes or waff-“ Erin immediately noticed Blaire, who was in bed with Orla, visibly bare-chested with the sheets down to her waist. Erin panicked and she quickly moved her eyes to another part of the room only to be met with clothes laying around the entire room. The blonde panicked and put a hand up to cover her eyes. 

 “I’ll have waffles, thank you, Erin,” Blaire chuckled with a wink.

 “Uh... Good morning, Blaire. What about you, Orla?” 

 “Waffles. Close the door on your way out, please.” Erin took a minute to side step her way out of the room with a hand still covering her eyes, but she accomplished it nonetheless.The door was eventually shut and as soon as both girls made eye contact, they burst into laughter, letting their laugh resound off of the ceiling above them. 

 “Well, I think we’re going to have to go eat rather than stay here and... eat.” Blaire gave Orla a once-over with a wink and Orla nudged Blaire with her shoulder, rolling her eyes. Blaire was the first to get up off of the bed, walking around the room to gather her clothes that laid around the entire room and smirking at the fact that her and Orla’s clothes were scattered around so erratically. Blaire was about to start getting dressed when she noticed Orla was still laying on the bed, clutching the bed sheets to her chest and watching her tentatively. “You gonna go all shy on me now, Curls?” 

 Orla pursed her lips and took a deep breath, “turn around.” 

 Blaire curiously raised an eyebrow, but did as she was told. The sound of sheets ruffling came before the faint stomping of footsteps moving around the room. Orla quickly dressed herself, choosing to wear a pink loose t-shirt that had a giant red lollipop stamped right in the middle of it and some black Adidas sweatpants. 

 “Can I look now?” Blaire’s question was answered by a black t-shirt with a big yellow smiley face stamped on the middle being thrown at her head. “Not so rough now, please,” Blaire said with a laugh. 

 “Wear that and this,” a pair of short black shorts landed on the bed near Blaire, who held up her own clothing up for Orla to see and gave the girl a questioning look. “It’s comfortable,” Orla replied with a shrug. 

 “You’re making me wear all black?” Blaire turned around and started putting the clothes on.

 “I’ve only ever seen you wear all black,” Orla remarked with a shrug. She sat on the edge of her bed and waited for Blaire to get ready, politely bouncing her eyes around the room and away from the girl across from her. As soon as Blaire finished, both girls took off downstairs and towards Erin’s house.

 Orla opened the front door and let Blaire walk in first, grabbing the girl’s hand as soon as they were inside and leading her to the kitchen they had been in the day before. All of the girls were sat around the table eating already, and when Orla walked in with Blaire, all eyes turned to them.

 “Mornin’,” Orla greeted the girls and led Blaire to a chair, signaling for her to take a seat. Orla went off to serve both her and Blaire a plate of waffles, leaving Blaire to awkwardly smile at everyone at the table. James and Clare smiled back, Erin gave Blaire a friendly wave while Michelle just kept staring between Orla and Blaire. 

 “Where did you guys go off to yesterday?” Clare innocently asked, making Erin choke on her orange juice. Blaire smirked at the blonde’s reaction and looked at Orla before answering. 

 “We came here to ask Mary if I could come along on the trip and then Orla showed me around her house,” Orla came up behind Blaire and set both plates down on the table, taking a seat beside her, “and then I decided to sleep over since it was already so late.” 

 “What did Mary say?” Michelle asked without even looking up from her plate. 

 Blaire shrugged, “that I can come along. Is that okay?” Michelle retorted with a shrug and went back to eating her breakfast. Blaire noticed Michelle’s cold demeanor and tilted her head, feeling a strong need to taunt the already annoyed girl, which Orla noticed and decided to intervene. 

 “We should all make a list of all the things we’re going to bring along, isn’t that right, Erin?” Orla snapped the blonde out of her thoughts and nodded. 

 “We could do it today, we don’t have anything else to do.”

 As the girls started brainstorming ideas, Orla turned to Blaire and noticed a purple and blue mark on her neck, slightly peeking out of the collar of her t-shirt. It wasn’t too noticeable thankfully, and Orla reached out to adjust the girl’s hair so that it was covering the hickey. Blaire gave Orla a sweet smile, wiggling her eyebrows as she chewed on her waffles. 

 Michelle noticed the interaction out of the corner of her eye and abruptly put her fork down, pushing her plate away.

 “So will you be hanging out with us today, Blaire?” James asked, leaning in with a hopeful smile. Blaire thought about it for a second when a hand reached to grab hers and she was met with pretty brown eyes asking her to say yes. 

 “Sure, I’ll hang around,” Blaire answered, giving James a nod. Orla perked up at Blaire’s answer and did a little happy clap of her hands.

 Orla and Blaire began to finish their breakfast as the group started telling funny stories of things that had happened on past trips.

 “-and then I looked over at Clare and she gives me her ‘we’re in so much trouble’ look she always gets and we all about lost it, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life.” The girls’ laughter filled the small kitchen, and Michelle couldn’t help the smile that crept on her face at the memory of Clare almost shitting her pants. “We never found Daddy’s I hairbrush after that, it’s probably buried somewhere in those woods.” 

 Blaire raised her eyebrows at Orla, not having heard what the first half of that story was even about and the curly-haired girl just shrugged her shoulders smiled. 

 Once Blaire and Orla were finished eating, the group decided to lounge around in the living room for the day and basically do nothing while Clare and Erin wrote up a list of necessities for the camping trip. Michelle, James and Blaire sat on the couch, while Clare and Erin sat on the floor along with Orla who sat in between Blaire’s legs, as the pale girl braided her hair. 

 “We need to talk about getting more tents, James and Blaire coming along means more people and we won’t all fit in our one tent from before,” Erin looked around at the group, trying to come up with an idea. 

 “We could do groups of three and three?” Clare offered a solution, but the group seemed hesitant. They all looked around at each other and thought about it. 

 “So who would group up with who?” James spoke up, sat in between Blaire and Michelle. The possible combinations were being mentally conjured up by every single of them. 

 “Well, Blaire’s grouping up with me, obviously,” Orla stated. “We’d need a third,” she said as she leaned her head back onto Blaire’s lap. The girl smirked down at Orla and shrugged her shoulders. 

 Clare gasped loudly as she sat up straight, “Well, it could be you guys and Michelle, and then James, Erin and I! How’s that sound?” Orla’s head shot up to give Clare a _d_ _id you really just say that_  look, and Michelle was suddenly brought out of her thoughts, ready to argue against this very horrible idea. 

 “Yeah I’m not sure about that, it tends to get crowded.” Michelle fiddled with her nails, trying not to look as annoyed as she actually was. 

 “I have a tent I can bring along, it’s not very big though,” Blaire said as she finished braiding Orla’s hair. Erin looked at Blaire and thought for a moment. 

 “Right, well we could borrow an extra and then have three tents in total. That would be two people to a tent or whatever you guys want to end up doing. But we would definitely have enough space.” The group nodded, liking this idea much better. “Alright then, we’ll be ready by next weekend, it’s gonna be grand.” 

 The girls were very visibly ecstatic about the upcoming trip, some more than others. They spent the rest of the afternoon laying around, coming up with ideas every now as then as Clare and Erin wrote them down, or pretended to. If anything, they spent more time glancing at the television and eventually they completely settled on watching whatever movie was on. The girls chuckled every now and then, finding the movie to be quite entertaining. 

 After a few hours, Orla and Erin got up to gather snacks from the kitchen and bring them to the hungry teens in the living room. Bags of chips were passed around along with juice boxes and the girls eagerly indulged. Orla and Erin took their spots on the floor and zoned in on the TV, each with their own snacks. Orla heard shuffling from behind her and soon Blaire was joining her on the floor. Both girls grinned at each other and shuffled to sit closer together, stifling their laughter and going back to focus on the movie. 

 Hours passed of back to back movies and while the girls had their eyes glued onto the TV, there was something else Michelle couldn’t take her eyes off of. Orla had fallen asleep and her head was resting on Blaire’s shoulder. A joke on the tv made the girls laugh, and Michelle wanted to laugh along with everyone else, but for different reasons. See, there was just something so funny about how things tend to play out, and the way that Blaire occasionally looks at Orla has got to be the biggest practical joke the universe has ever played on Michelle.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't plan on writing more than a couple of one shots in the beginning but now that I'm going to continue this, I decided to take a different approach so if the continuity doesn't make sense, know that I'm going to be going back to edit past chapters so that it does end up making sense in the long run haha hope you're still enjoying so far! Might do a chapter centered around Blaire (also I'm basing her off of a character with a different name from a popular british tv show, have a guess if you'd like)


	6. i can't care 'bout anything but you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> camping: part one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've spent weeks on this chapter and then near the end I realized it's wayyy too long so I'm splitting it into two parts. This first part is going to be sorta short but its going to set the mood for the second part which is way longer, I promise. Sorry for the wait! Enjoy!

The tents were settled, sleeping beds (ungracefully) thrown inside and the girls were gathered around the campfire that Granda Joe had started for them. Erin and James were tossing out snacks to the girls who were sat around the campfire on blankets.

"I'm absolutely starving," Orla groaned as she ripped open the bag of jumbo marshmallows that Erin had tossed at her head. Blaire sat cross-legged next to her, nibbling at a chocolate bar. The pale girl had been noticing the way that Michelle would stare between her and Orla while the curly-haired girl rambled to Blaire about some weird TV show she was watching or what color her favorite socks were. Michelle had this clear look of affection as she watched Orla and when Blaire would stare back and catch her attention, that same look would turn to one of pure disdain.

Reading people was one of Blaire's talents, and she figured out what Michelle's problem with her was.

"We should've had lunch earlier. I don't know why we thought it was a good idea to skip." Erin sat down next to Orla and started getting a marshmallow on a stick ready for roasting.

The girls started brainstorming other plans for the summer, passing soda cans around and tossing bags of chips to each other. Gray eyes smoldered in the fire as they watched Michelle, slowly growing full of resentment. Orla's warm hand snaked its way onto Blaire's thigh and soon into adoration.

"Where'd you go?" Orla's sweet voice made its way into Blaire's ears who in turn shrugged and smiled innocently. Both girls tuned into the conversation the rest of the girls were having as Blaire intertwined their hands on her lap.

"Well, yeah that's pretty obvious but I still don't think some random guy accidentally bumping into you means anything deep, Erin," Clare finished with a sassy roll of her eyes. 

"It was  _ not  _ an accident, Clare. It was clearly meant to be that we were both in the same shop at the same exact time!" The group burst into laughter, finding Erin's comment slightly more ridiculous than usual. The blonde looked around at her group of friends, overcome with disbelief. "What?! I am an idiot for believing in love at first sight?!" Erin was once again met with bouts of laughter.

"We're not in a Disney movie, sadly, Erin," Michelle said between cackles. All of the girls tried their best to calm down but none of them found it easy. Orla leaned over onto Blaire as she laughed, and Blaire leaned over to touch foreheads with her, both comfortably in their own bliss. Michelle noticed this and opened her mouth to speak again. "You can't just randomly meet a stranger and fall head over heels for them... its not normal." The jab Michelle had thrown at the two girls sitting in front of her went unnoticed by all of the girls, except for Blaire who ignored it and Orla who had little patience for Michelle's childish antics. The curly-haired girl stood up and began walking off, dragging Blaire behind her.

"Where are you off to? It's starting to get dark," Erin looked up at Orla as she spoke.

"We're just goin' for a walk, be back in a few." Orla gave a single nod towards her cousin, affirming to the blonde that she would be back and both the girls took off, but not before Blaire gave Michelle a pointed look, smirking when the green-eyed girl rolled her eyes.

The girls walked for a few minutes in silence through the eerily quiet forest. Small twigs crunched under leather boots and black converse. Orla was looking up at the tall trees, watching how they came and left her view as she strolled by. A pull of her hand caused Orla to look down from the trees and towards Blaire who had pulled her to a stop. 

"Something wrong?" Orla queried.

The question went unanswered by Blaire who instead smiled and ran right ahead towards a huge boulder sat between an opening of trees. The giant rock was almost the size of a small car and had soft edges with a smooth top. Observant brown eyes watched as slender arms and legs pulled and pushed, climbing onto the huge rock with only slight effort. Blaire sat cross-legged on top of the massive structure and gestured for Orla to join her. The curly-haired girl brandished a cunning smile as she walked up to the boulder and worked her way to the top of it in mere seconds with skilled ease. Blaire raised two perfectly arched eyebrows at Orla, slightly impressed.

Orla sat right next to Blaire, "I've climbed anything and everything since I was three years old. It's like the only thing I'm good at." Orla looked around at the massive trees surrounding them, admiring how regal they looked. Blaire followed her gaze, looking around at the large trees and wondered if Orla really thought that about herself. The pale girl was about to pry a bit more when Orla spoke up.

"Sometimes it feels like I can't be around my friends anymore," Orla said, wringing her hands.

"What do you mean?" Blaire shuffled slightly so that she was facing Orla.

"It's Michelle. It's like she doesn't want me around her at all but that's literally impossible because we are all always together." Orla's voice was different now, it didn't have its usual carefree tone to it. "I don't want either of us to have to leave the group, but it feels like the situation is heading that way."

Orla let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head as she leaned back to lay down on the boulder. The sky was turning a darker shade of blue with tints of violet. The tall trees stretched their branches out, framing the sky with green leaves. The summer air was so nice and so warm and Blaire let herself fall back to lay with Orla. A freckled nose moved to bump with Blaire's, and a giggle resonated from Orla's throat. The pale girl grinned and turned back to face the sky, inhaling the fresh air and letting it fill her lungs. 

"I can tell you don't like her," Orla said as she searched the darkening sky for stars.

"I don't care enough about her to dislike her," Blaire shrugged, "But I also don't exactly fancy people who act like complete wankers."

"Isn’t that the same thing as not liking her?" Orla tried her best not to chuckle. "She doesn't mean to come off as a 'wanker' all the time, she's just always been difficult for other people to get along with."

"So you’re defending her now?," gray eyes bore into brown, the only sounds heard were those of footsteps getting closer and closer. “You just told me about how shit things have been  _ because  _ of her. So what is it really?”

"Sorry for interrupting but Erin told me to come over and ask you guys to join us, we're about to have dinner," James said in his usual timid voice. Orla looked to Blaire, wanting to answer her question but before she could even say anything, the pale girl was up and making her way back to camp. James watched as Blaire walked away and then looked at Orla, noticing the girl was distraught. He walked up to her and helped her off the huge boulder, giving her a sweet smile as they both started walking towards the campsite.

When James and Orla got to the camp, the girls had already started eating. The girls had roasted hotdogs over the campfire and were washing it down with juice boxes. James strolled over to his spot next to Michelle who signaled to the plate she had ready for him with a snarky  _ took you long enough.  _ Clare was sat next to them and she was animatedly talking to Blaire, who was sitting across from her next to Erin, about how she should join them on their weekly movie nights. Blaire had an amused smirk on her face as she watched Clare's facial expressions twist and turn with every word she said, and Erin could do nothing but give Clare a bored look as she ate. Orla had a warm feeling in her chest as she looked around at her group of friends. The annual camping trip was one of her favorite things ever, next to sour candy and velvet curtains. There were many stressful things in life and while Orla was good at ignoring most of it, it definitely helped that she could have this sort of getaway from the rest of the world. Right now it was just her and her friends, hotdogs, a campfire and nothing in the world could ruin the feeling she was feeling right now. The warm feeling in Orla's chest erupted into a scorching burn when campfire flames reflected on gray eyes as they glanced up at her. Orla felt like her feet had grown roots and she was now planted down onto the forest floor. Flames lashed out at her in the reflection of those gray orbs, luring Orla to come closer. The curly-haired girl went to move her legs but she found that she still couldn't. Her eyes stayed fixed onto Blaire's and she could've sworn that the campfire got stronger when Blaire smirked, the flames aggressively lapping at the sky. Orla wanted to laugh, throw her hands in the air and laugh like there was no tomorrow because of course…  _ of course  _ this was happening right here and right now. 

It couldn’t have happened later on? Maybe a few months from now when the timing wasn’t so wrong? It really wasn't an unwelcome feeling. If anything, she had an idea that it was coming ever since that night Blaire had slept over at her house. Orla chuckled, shaking her head as she walked over to sit down in between Erin and Blaire. Erin handed her a plate already prepared with a roasted hotdog and a side of only the best and saltiest potato chips one could offer. 

"-and sure, we do tend to watch really bad movies but it’s sort of fun because we end up making fun of them." Clare was speaking at the speed of light, and with a smirk, Blaire glanced down at the hotdog that the small blonde hadn't even taken a bite out of yet. The rest of the group looked at one another as they chewed, once again taken aback by how talkative their small blonde friend can turn out to be.

"Right, anyway now that Clare over here is done trying to bore us into a coma, guess what I've brought," Michelle said as she licked ketchup off of her fingers. The girls looked around at each other, wondering if they were all guessing the same thing. 

"Well? Is anyone gonna take a fuckin' guess or what?" Michelle waited all of two seconds before she abruptly reached to grab a backpack she had laying beside her. She pulled it so that it was directly in front of her and gave Erin a sly grin before she unzipped the bag and slowly pulled out a huge bottle of vodka. 

"Seriously, Michelle?" Erin was anything but surprised.

"Oh, don't tell me you don't think this is a good idea," Michelle gestured to the bottle she was currently holding, "Okay well maybe not a good idea but definitely a fun one." 

Green eyes beamed as Michelle gave Erin a grin. The blonde mulled it over, weighing out the options. Sure, it's probably not a smart idea to drink in the middle of the woods with a bunch of other impulse-driven teenagers, but on the other hand, they were technically without supervision until the next morning. I mean, it wasn't like they were going to have a full on rave, right? Just a couple of friends having a couple of shots and having a good time. What could go wrong? Michelle was a persuasive person and she knew that her friends were easily the most impressionable people she knew.

 As soon as Erin made up her mind, green eyes lit up and Michelle quickly began opening the bottle of vodka. Two swigs later, Michelle was handing the huge bottle over to Erin, who grabbed it with uncertainty. A few seconds passed and right when Michelle was going to egg her on, Erin put the bottle to her lips, tilting her head back and taking a swig. The blonde's face twisted as she grimaced, still not used to the burning sensation in her throat caused by the drink. Erin looked around at the rest of her friends, waiting for one of them to ask for the bottle. Clare was about to scold Erin and Michelle for doing such a thing when Blaire reached over Orla's lap, grinning at Michelle, as she took the bottle from Erin. 

The pale girl put the bottle up to her lips, leaning her head back as far as she possibly could and started chugging. The group watched in astonishment with the exception of Michelle, who was scowling. With a smirk and a wink, Blaire offered the vodka to Orla, who took the bottle and mentally prepared herself for the horrible drink that was about to invade her taste buds. She made it about two gulps in before her brain told her to put the bottle down and reach for the nearest juice box. The girls collectively laughed as Orla chugged on her juice box like her life depended on it. Blaire picked the bottle up from where Orla had placed it and held it up to James, tilting her head when the boy politely shook his head and declined. The pale girl was about to try to coerce the boy when Clare suddenly reached out to snatch the bottle and downed what was probably more than she should’ve for someone that doesn't usually drink.

The atmosphere was quickly changing to a more hectic one as the bottle was passed around, and Blaire stood up to take a boombox out of her bag, setting it down on a nearby log and turning it on, setting the volume up to full blast. The music seemed fitting for someone like Blaire, it was heavy dance music, the kind that you jump around and thrash your head to. It took a second for the girls to get accommodated to the different genre, but as the vodka started swimming through their bloodstream, their heartbeats started matching the loud thumping of the music and they found that it was suddenly really easy to dance. 

Erin was the first to get up, jumping around to the blaring music, losing her balance with every other step and swinging the bottle around a little too carelessly so Blaire decided to get up and take it from her. The pale girl crouched, downing as much Vodka as she could before she carefully held up the bottle to Orla's lips, waiting for the other girl to open her mouth. Orla gazed into those gray eyes as they shone in the moonlight, glazed over and beautiful as ever. The curly-haired girl playfully rolled her eyes and opened her lips as Blaire carefully lifted the bottle and watched, entranced by the way those rosy lips drank from the bottle, and soon she was focused on Orla's neck, watching as her throat visibly moved with every gulp. Orla noticed as Blaire got distracted and when she decided she had enough vodka, she put her hand up to the neck of the bottle and moved it away from her face, breaking Blaire out of her daze. 

Both girls shared a look, what with Blaire's staring being way too obvious and both girls shared a laugh. Blaire's eyes looked deeply into Orla's and offered a  _ sorry  _ which Orla registered and she playfully rolled her eyes at the pale girl. The curly-haired girl felt her mouth getting dry and instinctively licked her lips. Blaire saw this and took a deep breath, her breathing turning ragged and slow. Orla watched hungry gray eyes dim into a darker shade and Blaire stood up, almost losing her balance.

"Let's dance." Blaire's voice was raspy and Orla could feel goosebumps rising on her skin as she felt the the pale girl's hot breath close to her neck. Blaire stood up and offered a hand to Orla, who took it and the curly-haired girl was abruptly pulled onto her feet. Both girls walked to a spot further away from the campfire, aware that dancing next to an open fire while drunk isn't the best idea, and they were soon moving to the rhythm of the music. The girls danced as they faced one another, feeling their faces starting to get hot due to the alcohol, and Orla slowly slipped out of the cardigan she was wearing, not losing the rhythm of the music. A dopey smile spread across Orla's lips as a thought came across her mind. She held the cardigan by the sleeves as she slung it around Blaire’s waist, slowly pulling the girl right up against her. Blaire's hands rested on Orla's shoulders as both girls started grinding against each other. Behind them, Erin had convinced Clare to stand up and dance, and both girls had tried to get Michelle to join them to no avail. Erin basically forced James to stand up and dance but the boy didn't seem to mind. 

Blaire and Orla were now swaying around, trying not to fall over and dancing as best as they could. The vodka did not take long to have its effect, and even though Blaire was a habitual drinker, her tolerance wasn't currently at its best. The only thing providing light other than the moon was the campfire, making it hard to see anything past arm's length.

It had been in a split second when Blaire saw it. It was easier to see because the girl was sitting right next to the campfire. It was Michelle, and she was glaring at Blaire. Her suspicions had been correct since day one, and now that she knew for a fact that she had been right, she decided she was going to have a hell of a time. Blaire reached down to grab the cardigan from Orla's hands and soon it was being thrown to the ground. Blaire rested her forehead on Orla's for a moment, looking into those gorgeous brown eyes, before reaching down to grab her by the waist and turn her around so that the girl's back was to her. The pale girl made sure to turn to Michelle and grin as she pulled Orla back so that they were right up against each other, going back to dancing to the music without a care in the world. 

It didn't take long for the dance to get heated. Swaying hips caused more and more friction, and the cold hands on Orla's waist were starting to wander around more feverishly. Orla started to feel the heat more and more, and she leaned her head back onto Blaire's shoulder, feeling grateful that the pale girl always felt cold to the touch. Blaire felt Orla's damp neck resting on her shoulder and she leaned over, sticking her tongue out and licking Orla's neck, from the dip where her neck meets her collarbone all the way up to her earlobe, tasting the saltiness from Orla's sweat. A low groan made its way out of the curly-haired girl's mouth, just loud enough for Blaire to hear, and the pale girl grinned as she leaned over again, this time to nip at Orla's earlobe. A moan came out of Orla's mouth this time and Blaire couldn't help but chuckle at how easy it was to get a reaction out of this girl. Blaire looked around at the rest of the girls, noticing that Michelle had moved from her spot by the campfire and was currently trying to get a clumsy Clare to sit down while James and Erin sang along to the song that was playing. Convinced that everyone else was too busy to notice, Blaire slowly dragged a hand down Orla's torso, sliding under the hem of her sweatpants before a warm hand reached down to stop her. The pale girl was about to pull her hand away when Orla turned to face her, grabbing her hand and leading them towards their tent. The group was too busy dealing with a belligerent Clare to notice as Blaire and Orla started walking off. 

Orla unzipped the entrance to the tent, climbing in and sitting down on the blankets while Blaire climbed in and made sure to zip up the opening of the tent, and as soon as it was fully zipped up, Orla pounced on Blaire, clashing their lips in a heated kiss. It was clumsy and impatient and both girls tasted the strong traces of vodka in each other's mouths. Cold hands slowly moved down to lean onto the ground as Blaire slowly crawled forward, causing Orla to lean back until she was laying on her back and Blaire climbed on top of her while their tongues danced around each other and hands roamed now familiar torsos.

The kiss lasted for a while before both girls had to pull away for air, and Blaire sat up on Orla’s waist, chest heaving as she ran a hand through her dark brown hair. The tent was dark and the girls couldn't see each other in the darkness so Orla reached out and patted her hand around until she found her lantern which she clicked on and soon, an annoyingly bright light filled the tent and both girls squinted, blinded by the light. Both of the girls laughed, intoxicated and slightly dizzy. A warm hand slowly made its way up to cup Blaire’s cheek, and the girl could only stare back helplessly as Orla’s observant eyes bore into Blaire. A thumb ran over Blaire’s cold and chiseled cheekbone, softly caressing the skin. Blaire couldn’t figure out what it was that she was seeing. There was a story to be told from those brown eyes, they looked at her like they held all the secrets in the world and all Blaire had to do was ask for them. A smile slowly grew on Orla’s face, it was a smile so sweet and so pretty that Blaire felt her breath hitch in her throat. Blaire watched as Orla’s eyes slowly examined her, focusing on different parts of her face, and as seconds passed, Blaire started to feel like something was wrong. That instinct in her that always tells her when something is off was sounding alarms in her head and giving her an uneasy feeling in her stomach, but for the first time ever, she couldn’t tell where the threat was coming from. 

It couldn’t be Orla. Blaire had gotten a good feeling about this girl since she saw her at that party. But the pale girl’s instincts still felt the need to start building up emotional barriers. Blaire could hear that familiar voice at the back of her mind warning her, and as hard as she tried to shut it out, it only got louder and louder. Blaire was momentarily brought out of her inner turmoil when she felt Orla brush a strand of hair behind her ear, brown eyes still looking up at her intently. The voice at the back of Blaire’s mind was annoyingly loud now and Blaire was starting to get frustrated. 

“Stop looking at me like that,” Blaire’s raspy voice was low but Orla noticed the slight tone of annoyance.

Orla brought down her hand, letting it rest on her stomach. She wanted to say something, anything, a simple  _ sorry  _ or anything like that, but Orla couldn't think over the drunken daze she was falling into. She was too focused on trying to figure out what she had done in the first place to earn this reaction from Blaire. Did she do something? Maybe Blaire had asked her a question and Orla was too distracted? The curly-haired girl searched Blaire’s face for any clue she could get but the girl sitting on top of her seemed to be having her own dilemma. Blue-gray orbs looked off at nothing in particular, glancing at Orla every now and then. Orla wondered how much time had passed since they stopped making out and felt slightly guilty for being sad that it had at least been over five minutes since she had gotten to kiss those lips. A few moments passed and as Orla was about to speak up to say literally anything that came to mind, someone spoke from outside the tent.

"Are both of you going to come out and join us or should I come in there and drag the both of you out?” Erin slurred from outside the tent, waiting for a response from either of the girls who she was sure were sucking face right now. Sure, they were all drunk and dancing around like absolute morons, but Erin had caught glimpses of Orla and Blaire basically dry humping to the music, not even trying to at least make it look like they were dancing. Inside the tent, Orla kept her eyes on Blaire, trying to figure out what exactly was going on in the girl’s head.  

Outside, Erin figured she would have to sacrifice her eyesight to get the girls to come out and keep partying so she started clumsily unzipping the tent, trying her best not to fall over onto the ground. As soon as Erin was done unzipping the tent though, Blaire pulled back on the opening and promptly made her way out, smiling at Erin as she made her way around her and towards the rest of the group. Erin watched as Blaire joined the girls, grabbing the bottle of vodka and chugging like there was no tomorrow. The sound of someone shuffling around made Erin turn to her side, finding Orla standing beside her. The cousins shared a look and the blonde noticed that Orla didn’t waste a second before focusing her attention on the pale girl dancing by the campfire without a care in the world. 

There was a moment of introspection for Orla. She knew all too much and so little all at once. What she knew was that she was starting to feel  _ something  _ for Blaire, and whatever that meant, she decided she would worry about it later. What she was starting to realize is that she knows practically nothing about Blaire. Sure, they’ve hung out a handful of times but they only ever talked about tv shows, went shopping and casually made out every now and then. Orla disliked the fact that she was overthinking this in the first place. She’s always been the type of person that drifts about life and she liked that about herself. But right here, right now, she could feel a slight drop in her heart, and it was the biggest red flag she quickly decided she would ignore. 

The flames of the campfire reflected off of pale skin in a beautiful orange glow and as the dancing girl tilted her head back, easily downing a good amount of vodka like it was water, Orla realized how stunning Blaire looked in that exact moment. She could feel her free will slowly leaving her when those gray eyes noticed her, and when those lips twisted into that dangerous, playful smirk, Orla couldn't help but think back at all those times her Mom gave her a whole sermon about how dangerous it was to play with fire. 

A hand danced its way into the air to the beat of a slow and seductive song, reaching out to Orla, beckoning her to come over, and despite all those countless times she was warned; Orla never saw the harm in playing with fire. 

 


	7. i only love it when you touch me, not feel me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> camping part two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what up my dudes, ya girl's been super busy and i pretty much didn't have time to finish this chapter until this week but hey here it is, hope ya like!

 

The feeling of something sharp digging itself into her back slowly rose Orla out of deep slumber. She arched her back and reached a hand around to grab at whatever it was that was currently digging itself into her spine, pulling out a small tree branch and tossing it over her head. A faint _ow_ was heard and Orla craned her head back to see who she had hit, finding James in a sleeping bag a few feet away from her. He appeared to be too asleep to care as he turned to his side, away from Orla, and went back to sleep. The curly-haired girl quietly chuckled at the incident and was about to sit up when she felt a weight on her stomach. She looked down to find a very asleep and very disheveled Blaire laying on her back with her head resting on Orla’s stomach. Blaire’s legs were stretched out, her feet almost touching Erin’s forehead who was sound asleep across from them. Orla marveled at the girl, a little jealous that this girl still looks stunning even with leaves all over her hair and what looked to be icing smeared onto her blouse. 

Orla moved to lean up on her elbow and delicately used the tip of her index finger to move a strand of hair away from Blaire’s face. Orla couldn’t help but think about how quiet and peaceful Blaire seemed when she slept, it was such a stark contrast to how Blaire was when she was awake; dangerous eyes full of chaos and an aura that paralleled the eye of a hurricane, calm with an impending doom. Blaire is one of the only people that Orla has ever found interesting enough to be around for longer than five minutes (not including her own friends,) everyone else in Derry was just too predictable and vanilla.

It took Orla about five solid minutes of shuffling and maneuvering so that she slipped out from under Blaire without disturbing the girl and waking her up. Orla slipped her oversized hoodie off and carefully draped it over the sleeping girl. Blaire was always so cold to the touch but it was probably because she never wears any jackets, Orla thought.

“Mornin’,” Michelle briefly greeted as she sipped from a soda can. 

The taller girl tried not to roll her eyes as she made her way around to rummage through the cooler, grabbing a water bottle and downing almost the entire bottle in a frenzy. With the leaves decorating all of her messy hair and her clothing mostly covered in dirt, she figured she probably looked homeless right now and her suspicions were confirmed when Michelle gave a quick glance in her direction and almost choked on her soda. 

“You know, you’re supposed to sleep _in_ your sleeping bag. Not on it.”

“Really? I had no idea, thanks for telling me,” Orla sarcastically stated, trying to shake the leaves out of her hair. Michelle noticed the leaves were only getting more entangled in Orla’s curls, so she put her drink down and walked over to help, giving Orla no time to react as she grabbed some of the girl’s curls and carefully picked out the intruding leaves and twine. The curly-haired girl didn’t really know what to do or say. She wanted to swat Michelle’s hands away and tell her to go away but she also didn’t want to make _this_ any worse, whatever _this_ was, so she decided not to do anything and wait for Michelle to finish, it couldn’t last more than a few minutes, right?...

Well, it apparently could. Orla didn’t have a watch (anything wrapped around her wrists makes her feel uneasy) so she couldn’t be too sure but if she had to guess, she would say that Michelle has been picking at her hair for around ten minutes. The tall girl’s heels were starting to feel sore and her neck had been craned in an awkward angle for so long that it felt like she had slept on it funny. She tried to distract herself with the sounds of different birds chirping and singing and it sort of helped; the warm rays of sunlight on her face felt so very nice and the feeling of her hair being played with caused her to close her eyes and bask in the moment. She was either daydreaming or starting to doze off when the serene silence was broken.

“Are we braiding each others hair now?” Orla opened her eyes and watched as Blaire walked over and looked intently at Michelle, “You wanna braid mine next?” 

“I’d rather not, thanks,” Michelle said dryly as she let go of Orla’s hair and walked off to grab her soda from where she had left it.

“Your loss then,” Blaire retorted and turned her attention to Orla, tilting her head and smirking. “How’d you sleep, Curls?” Orla watched leaves slip off of Blaire as the pale girl shuffled to stand closer.

“Sleeping on very small and jagged tree branches is actually not as bad as it sounds,” Orla mused. “I don’t really remember dragging the sleeping bags out of the tents in the first place, who’s idea was that?”

“Not sure, the last thing I remember is Erin falling over and then Clare laughing so hard that I think she stopped breathing for a solid minute.” 

Orla laughed, she didn’t remember that part of the night either but Blaire did draw her a pretty good mental picture and there’s nothing funnier than Clare’s face as she’s in mid-laughing fit.

 “Oh, and you make a wonderful pillow,” Blaire nodded along to her statement.

“I’m glad you think so,” Orla coyly shrugged. 

About fifteen feet away, Erin was in the process of getting up, yawning as she stood up and stretched her legs, hair up in an almost-undone messy bun. She took a moment to try to rub the sleepiness out of her eyes before she stopped to take in her surroundings. Claire was passed out and curled up in five different blankets, snoring her little heart out with her bangs sticking up in the air.

“She’ll be out for a few hours, I think,” James remarked, walking up to stand next to Erin. He was dusting dirt off of his pants, looking at Clare with a look of amusement.

“We should try waking her up in a few minutes, just to be sure she’s not dead,” Erin joked. She turned to James, patting his head to try to fix his unkempt curls. The boy smiled and ducked his head a little so the shorter girl had more reach. 

“Have you ever wondered?”

Erin furrowed her eyebrows at James, waiting for him to finish his question. The boy didn’t say anything else, he just kept his gaze on something behind Erin. The blonde wondered if James really had opted out of drinking last night as she followed his line of sight and realized he was staring at Blaire and Orla. The girls were laughing loudly as Blaire picked leaves out of Orla’s messy hair (or at least tried to). The pale girl was having trouble detangling Orla’s thick curls and was blurting out obscenities every single time she failed at pulling a leaf out and Orla was having a fun time teasing Blaire about it. 

“Yeah… Blaire seems nice though so I’m not too worried.” Both the blonde and the boy watched the girls for a moment, endeared by the sight. 

Erin knew it had always been hard for Orla to make friends. She had grown up watching her cousin try and fail at making herself come off as a “normal” girl to other kids. It was always such a heartbreaking sight, the sadness that befell those pretty brown eyes every time some girl at school called her “weird” and walked off, never to interact with Orla again. So, this new Blaire girl really was a surprise to Erin, and while the circumstances from which the group met her are a bit undesirable, she was glad that her cousin had finally found someone else that she could connect to, someone else that isn’t already part of their friend group.

James, on the other hand, had mixed feelings about Blaire. He’s not the type to really hold a grudge on someone, if anything, he’s the exact opposite of that. He’s a kind soul and forgives way too easily, a good boy at heart. But James is also not the best judge of character, he’s about as naive as Orla and really believes in the best in people. While he did take a liking to Blaire and really does genuinely like being around her, he couldn’t help the gnawing feeling he got every time he saw Blaire interact with his cousin Michelle. It’s like there’s this sudden tension in the air whenever those two are near each other, and it’s not like the type of tension that happens when Michelle snaps at Jenny Joyce, it’s quite different but James still can’t really put his finger on it.

Right here though, as he watched Blaire and Orla playing around and laughing without a care in the world, he realized he was so very close to figuring it all out. It was all because not far away from those two girls stood Michelle, holding an empty can of soda in her hands as she fidgeted with it, watching Blaire and Orla out of the corner of her eye. Maybe it was the fact that living with Michelle made it easier for him to read her or maybe it was really just that obvious but the boy saw it clear as day. 

Orla’s rosy lips got closer and closer to Blaire’s pale cheek and right as they made contact, the corner of Michelle’s mouth twitched as she dropped her soda and stormed off.

Erin and James shared a look and while the blonde was about to follow after her friend, James put his hand up to stop her as he took off to go after his cousin.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“I can hear you followin’ me, dickhead,” Michelle said loudly so that James could hear it as he trailed behind her. A faint ‘ _sorry’_ is all the green eyed girl got in response, so she smacked her lips in frustration. 

“If you’re gonna follow me then can you at least not be creepy about it.” Michelle stopped and turned to face James, motioning for him to come over and walk with her. The curly-haired boy was visibly confused by the offer but quickly caught up to Michelle before the girl changed her mind.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to bother you,” James quietly spoke, watching his feet as he and Michelle began walking. 

“You’re botherin’ me right now,” Michelle snapped.

A few moments passed without a reply from the boy, and the green-eyed girl was starting to feel bad for taking her frustration out on her poor cousin. 

“Look,” Michelle rolled her eyes, “I’m sorry… I guess. I know you’re trying to help.” She glanced at James out of the corner of her eye and was glad to see an understanding smile on the boy’s face.

“It’s alright, ‘Chelle. No need to apologize.” 

The pair walked in silence for a while, James observing the scenery while Michelle seemed preoccupied with her own thoughts. The girl was starting to get that gross feeling she gets when she wants to tell James about stuff going on in her life. She wasn’t used to “opening up” to people but ever since James came along, Michelle was slowly getting comfortable with him. Sometimes while they’re watching TV as they eat breakfast, she’ll tell him about how she actually passed a test she swore she was going to fail because she didn’t study for it, like at all. Or sometimes she’ll join him while he’s reading one of his nerdy comic books and she’ll tease him about it and pretend she’s not interested as James goes on a rant about why that certain comic book is good and explain the entire plot to her for a whole afternoon.

She would never admit it but he’s a very trustworthy person and might just trust him enough to tell him about something complicated she’s been dealing with lately.

“It doesn’t make any sense, does it?” Green eyes looked around as Michelle’s brain tried to piece things together.

“What doesn’t make any sense?” James questioned.

“That Blaire girl,” Michelle said as she looked over at James, “She shows up out of nowhere and Orla just clings to her like she’s cotton candy. Since when does she do that?” Michelle furrowed her eyebrows, confused but mostly frustrated.

“Since when did she start liking cotton candy?” James asked, oblivious to the point Michelle was trying to make.

“No, James,” she deadpanned, “Since when does Orla meet literally _anyone_ and suddenly just starts wanting to be around them all the time. They don’t even make her pair up with anyone at school for projects because she’ll either weird them out or just ditch them. I don’t understand what the deal is with her and Blaire.” 

“Well, she’s nice I guess.”

“That’s it? She’s nice?”

“Blaire’s also sort of funny and she’s totally super cool… Did Clare tell you about how she showed us this sick scar she has on the back of her neck? It’s wicked.” James raised his eyebrows in astonishment, the memory of it replaying in his head.

“So, she’s nice and she’s got a scar, right.” Michelle donned the most unimpressed look on her face she could muster.

“She’s also… I don’t know… pretty.” A loud gagging noise came from Michelle as she put a balled up fist to her mouth.

“Are you fuckin’ serious right now?” Michelle furrowed her eyebrows, looking at James with the best look of disgust she could make. “Seriously?”

“I was just saying. She’s not exactly horrible in the face, Michelle.” James shrugged, turning away slightly so as to hide the light blush flaring up on his cheeks. Michelle smacked her lips, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

“What’s any of this got to do with Orla and her weird obsession with Blaire anyway, it’s not like Orla’s got the hots for her or anything,” Michelle scoffed, “Can you imagine?”

James got really stiff all of a sudden, his face hardening as his eyes tried to focus on anything but Michelle’s. The girl quickly took notice of the quiet boy and his panicked state. 

“What’s up with you?” Michelle nudged James a little too strong as always. “You hiding something from me?”

“What? No! I was just… I don’t know, I was just thinking about schoolwork and stuff.”

“It’s summer, you idiot. Spill or I’ll punch you until you tell me.”

“Erin told me that… well. That one day that Blaire and Orla took off, remember they didn’t show up again? They just sort of came back the next morning.” James paused, biting his lip as he pondered whether he should keep talking.

“Of course I remember, dickface, keep going.”

“Alright. Well, Orla wasn’t showing up for breakfast that morning so Erin went to go check on her at her house and… remember she came back and both Orla and Blaire had spent the night together?”

“Just get to the fuckin’ point, James,” Michelle spoke impatiently, sounding both agitated and a little wary.

“I remember Erin that morning, she just seemed a bit off after she came back from Orla’s. I ended up asking what was wrong and she told me that she had seen Blaire and Orla together… in bed…”

“And? What’s weird about that?” The green-eyed girl asked, not wanting her cousin to answer the question.

“They were in bed, like... _naked._ ” James looked over at his cousin as he finished his sentence, trying to gauge Michelle’s reaction, but the girl just stared straight ahead. “Then, after they came to join us for breakfast, Erin said she noticed Orla had a hickey on her neck, so that pretty much–“

“Just shut up already, will you?” Michelle abruptly stopped walking, turning to look her cousin in the eye. 

“I’m sorry. I thought you wanted to know.” The boy apologized, trying not to make eye contact with Michelle.

“Well, I don’t.”

It was sort of true, in a way. Michelle really didn’t want to hear about the hickey on Orla’s neck. She had also seen it on that morning, who hadn’t? It was a huge purple mark on Orla’s neck, it sort of had the shape of a map of Australia, Michelle remembers. The green eyed girl had seen it, and no, she didn’t care. What she also didn’t give a shit about was the way that Blaire looked at Orla as she reached over to twirl one of Orla’s curls, a knowing smirk on the pale girl’s face as she covered the hickey with brown curls.

Michelle had heard enough, deciding to make her way back to camp and just shut herself into her tent for the rest of the day. She could hear her cousin’s footsteps behind her as she stomped back to camp, and a small part of her started to feel bad for having taken her anger out on him.

“Sorry,” Michelle mumbled, huffing as she rolled her eyes.

“It’s alright,” the boy’s soft voice was just loud enough for Michelle to hear, and nothing else was said for the rest of the walk back.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It was late in the evening now and all the girls were doing their own thing. Clare sat against a tree as she read one of her favorite books aloud to Erin who sat next to her as she doodled on one of her journals. Michelle had gone into her tent earlier and hadn’t come out for hours now. James was walking around searching for rocks he could collect and take back home with him. Blaire and Orla sat inside their tent across from each other, talking endlessly about anything and everything. 

“Are you being serious right now?” Orla said between snorts.

“Yes! I had to wear this stupid little beret hat and all.” Blaire’s raspy laugh filled the tent, “It had this ribbon hanging down, it was the worst.” 

“That sounds like the cutest thing ever,” Orla replied. “Do you still have it?”

“No! Why would I keep my stupid old private school uniform? It’s the most hideous thing I’ve ever had to wear.”

“I’m sure you still looked very cute in it, weird hat included.” Orla chimed, bringing a hand up to pinch one of Blaire’s cheeks. Blaire’s rosy lips moved to kiss Orla’s knuckles as gray eyes looked deep into brown. The pale girl grabbed ahold of Orla’s wrist and kissed the back of the curly-haired girl’s hand, never losing eye contact.

“You’re cute,” Blaire smiled as both of their hands fell into her lap. 

“You’re pretty,” Orla replied.

The curly-haired girl admired Blaire, who was now mindlessly playing with Orla’s hand. How was it possible for such a sweet girl to also be so intimidating? Orla recalled a time earlier in the week when Blaire had invited her out for ice cream. 

_The girls were sat a booth and Blaire was listening intently to Orla as she ranted about how sprinkles really don’t add any flavor to ice cream and they’re only really used to make ice cream look nicer. The pale girl nodded every time Orla stopped to ask if Blaire agreed on her personal opinions over ice cream toppings, and Blaire had to bite her lip to stop herself from smiling when she looked down at Orla’s hand on the table and noticed the girl’s ice cream cone had been melting during the curly-haired girl’s speech on “useless sprinkles.” Orla saw the look on Blaire’s face and stopped to look down at her hand covered in melted ice cream._

_“You’re a mess,” Blaire smiled, reaching over to grab a handful of napkins from the dispenser on the table and helping Orla clean her hand up, the curly-haired girl blushed a bright shade of red, giving the pale girl a sheepish smile._

_“What do we have over here? Someone turn the heat on or what?” A tall boy wearing a colorful ice cream parlor uniform waltzed over to the booth to stand next to Orla. He had nice eyelashes, shiny hair and a smirk that took no time to irritate Blaire._

_“Sorry?” Blaire’s deep voice startled the boy and he quickly shifted to face her._

_“Oh, I meant, like, because the ice cream melted so I asked about the heat... you know? Because it’s probably hot and the ice cream melted… because of that, maybe...” The boy gulped, shifting under the pale girl’s apathetic gaze._

_“Right.” Blaire smirked, feeling satisfied with having made the poor boy afraid for his life in such a short time._

_“I can get you another ice cream cone if you’d like, that’s no bother,” the boy looked frantically in between Orla and Blaire, hoping one of them would say anything and break the uncomfortable silence._

_Blaire tilted her head and nodded, watching him as he clumsily made his way across the ice cream shop._

_“What was that?” Orla giggled, giving Blaire a funny look. “I think he almost peed his pants.”_

_Blaire grinned at Orla, raising her eyebrows in amusement. “Yeah, I think so too.”_

_“Are you jealous, Bear?” Orla teased._

_“Yes,” Blaire sighed, “I sadly can’t compete with his outfit… maybe if I also dressed like someone in a quartet group that was also straight out of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory.”_

_Both of the girls exchanged looks for a second before bursting into laughter. That day was definitely in the top three for Orla, and the gorgeous way that Blaire looked that afternoon, the way her smile beamed as she laughed, is something the brown-eyed girl frequently thinks back to at night._

The feeling of something foreign landing on her wrist startled Orla out of her wandering mind, and she looked down to see pale hands tying something around her wrist. Once Blaire pulled away, Orla brought her hand up to inspect a small silver bird on a black braided bracelet now snugly tied around her wrist.

“You like it?” Blaire queried. Orla nodded, not taking her eyes off of the silver bird.

“If you two aren’t out of there in the next five minutes, I’m going to grab that tent and drag it around until you two come stumbling out!” Erin shouted from outside the tent, not giving the girls any time to reply before walking away.

Blaire and Orla exchanged looks, shrugging and laughing as they shuffled out of the tent.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Thank you for joining us, girls, I will be handing out supplies soon so just pick a spot and sit down,” Erin instructed.

Blaire took one look at Erin and wondered what this was all about but she figured it was best not to ask and just do as she’s told for now so she took Orla’s hand and led her to a spot next to Clare and across from James. 

“Is she about to make us drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide?” Blaire whispered to James, causing the boy to snicker.

“It’s our last night here so we’re going to paint and bond and share stories,” Orla murmured, “she makes us do this every year, it’s sort of fun I guess.” 

Before Blaire could make another joke about how cult-y this seemed, the conversation was cut short by Michelle who walked up and sat next to James and across from Orla. She didn’t say a word, keeping her eyes on her hands neatly placed on her lap. 

“You alright, ‘Chelle?” James asked, leaning in so that only Michelle could hear. The green-eyed girl gave him a pointed look out of the corner of her eye and faintly nodded.

After a few minutes of awkward chat between the girls, Erin handed out a small canvas to everyone along with paint bottles, small paper plates and different kinds of brushes. The girls spent the next few hours into the night goofing off and making fun of each other's paintings, any tension that had been present was gone, at least until the very end of the night.

The girls had finished painting and were in the process of cleaning up to get ready to go to bed. James was collecting the canvasses, setting them aside on their own area so they could dry for the night while Erin and Clare picked up the remaining supplies and put them away. Michelle was doing her usual “walk around and pretend to be helping” routine and Blaire and Orla were frolicking about.

“Don’t you dare!” Blaire warned the curly-haired girl who was menacingly pointing a paint bottle at her.

“What are you talking about? I’m not doing anything,” Orla sang innocently. 

The stand-off lasted for about thirty seconds before Blaire rushed at Orla, picking her up by the waist and spinning her around. The curly-haired girl squealed, trying to break herself free from Blaire, who lost her balance and stumbled backwards into Michelle.

“Fuckin’ watch it, will you?” Michelle gave Blaire a look, rolling her eyes and walking off.

“What was that?” Blaire rasped, putting Orla down and stepping forward. The green-eyed girl stopped in her tracks, laughing dryly as she turned around to face Blaire.

“I told you to watch it, is that too much to fuckin’ ask?”

“What’s your problem?”

“You… You’re my fuckin’ problem.”

By now, the other girls had heard the conflict and stopped what they were doing, rushing over to try to mediate the fight. 

“Bear, come on, let’s just go to bed,” Orla suggested, grabbing hold of Blaire’s hand to try to get her to walk away.

“No,” Blaire pulled her hand away from Orla’s, “I’ve about had it with her and her stupid condescending bullshit!”

“That’s just great because I’ve also fuckin’ had it with you,” Michelle sneered, slowly walking closer to Blaire.

Orla looked around and met eyes with her cousin, mentally asking her to step in and help her. Erin was quick to act and went up to Michelle to try getting the girl to calm down.

“Michelle, it’s really not worth it so let’s just not do this right now,” Erin said as she grabbed Michelle by the shoulder.

“Why are you acting like I’m the one ruining this!? This was _your_ idea... _you_ let _her_ come along on _our_ trip! I had been waiting all year for this stupid camping trip and you let her come along and ruin it!” Michelle shook her head at Erin, feeling a lump forming in her throat.

“Are you actually that upset about me coming along on the trip?” Blaire scoffed.

“Just stop, Blaire,” Orla ran a hand through her hair. She wasn’t the biggest fan of having to deal with conflict, actually, she hated it more than anything.

“What? She’s been acting like an entire bitch ever since we met, am I just supposed to ignore that?” Blaire furrowed her eyebrows, turning her attention to Orla.

“Well, you’re not exactly helping the situation right now, you know?”

“Are you serious?” Blaire asked, taking a step back and waiting for Orla to reply, but the curly-haired girl simply shrugged her shoulders, not knowing what to say. She didn’t want to say anything else to anger Blaire, but she also didn’t want to run the risk of upsetting Michelle even more.

A few seconds passed, the rest of the girls were too afraid to say anything that could make things worse so they all stood amongst each other, hoping for whatever this was to end so they could just go to bed and go home the next morning. Michelle was still busy trying to push her emotions aside and focus on being angry while Blaire and Orla were in a telepathic argument of their own. Both girls stared at one another, Orla wanting to find the right words to say but her panicked brain was in overdrive and Blaire didn’t do anything but stare at the curly-haired girl with a mix of disbelief and anger. 

A few more seconds passed before the pale girl just gave Orla a single nod, walking off to her tent and zipping it shut.

The rest of the girls, confused by everything that had just happened, stood around not knowing what to do next. Michelle was the first to walk off, going into her tent and leaving it open for her cousin to join her, who promptly said ‘goodnight’ to the girls and went to join Michelle. Erin and Clare shared a look and turned to Orla, all three of the remaining girls knowing the tall girl would now have to share tents with the blondes. 

Erin gave her cousin a half-smile, pulling the tall girl into her side and leaning her head onto Orla’s shoulder as they made their way towards their tent, both of them feeling spent and hoping this was just one of those fights that fizzle out on their own.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Days passed and Orla hadn’t seen or heard from Blaire since they all got back from the trip. The curly-haired girl avoided hanging out with her friends, opting instead to stay home in case Blaire decided to come looking for her. She didn’t want to run the risk of going out with her best friends and not be home if Blaire came knocking at her door. Honestly, Orla didn’t really have the energy to hang out with her friends anyway. She was too busy trying to play it cool and act like this wasn’t killing her.

Orla was currently sat in her room at her desk, trying to draw to distract herself but every single sketch ended up being a pretty blue eye with long lashes or thin rosy lips which only made Orla miss Blaire more. The brown-eyed girl dropped her pencil, putting her head in her hands and sighed with frustration. The thought of Orla never seeing Blaire again was becoming more of a possibility and Orla was finding it harder and harder to hold her tears back. 

A knock at her bedroom door caused Orla to bolt up from her chair and she was quickly making her way across the room, stopping for half a second to hurriedly fix her hair and rub away the tears that had been brimming in her eyes a second ago before quickly opening the door.

“I’ve got something sort of serious to talk about if that’s alright,” Michelle stated with a slight hint of insecurity she hoped went unnoticed by the other girl, who tried her best to hide her disappointment when she wasn’t met with dark blue eyes and a cheeky grin.

“Sure, come on in,” Orla’s eyes wandered as she spoke, stepping aside to let Michelle into her bedroom. 

“I didn’t really prepare a speech or anything so I’m doing this on the fly,” Michelle rushed through her sentence sounding a bit out of breath, hurriedly pacing back and forth in front of Orla. “You remember that night at the party where we met Blaire?” Orla averted her gaze to the floor beneath her at the mention of Blaire’s name and Michelle mentally scolded herself. _Of course she remembers, idiot._

“Right, so the thing is that after the whole passive-aggressive fight we had, while we were outside waiting for a ride home, I wanted to tell you something except I wasn’t sure if I should and also you were mad at me and I was mad at you too. I don’t know. It was all just so awkward. Not to mention the fact that you were high as a fuckin’ kite… Anyway, after that party I kept thinking about it every single night. It’s been eating away at my mind since then. I swear that I thought it over and over and I thought about the pros and the cons and everything in-fuckin’-between. Just promise me that you’ll hear me out.” Michelle stomped her foot as she stopped in front of Orla, abruptly turning to face the taller girl. That brave and hopeful light in those green eyes slowly dimmed, finding Orla’s brown orbs focused on her own shoes, lost in thought. A lump began forming in Michelle’s throat and she tried to will it away, swallowing with all of her might and hoping that her voice wouldn’t fail her.

“Orla?...” It sounded pleading and a bit desperate and Michelle wanted to walk out and slam the door and never have to see the girl with the pretty brown eyes and the pretty brown freckles and the pretty brown curls again.

“Hm?” Orla hummed, visibly lost and confused.

“Did you seriously not listen to a word I just said?” Michelle tried not to sound frustrated or hurt but she was never good at hiding her emotions, she always liked that about herself… except for right at this moment.

“I’m so sorry, Michelle. Can you please start over? I just have a lot on my mind, I’m sorry, I got distracted.” Orla genuinely looked sorry but that didn’t stop Michelle from looking at her like she had just kicked a puppy.

“What’s wrong with you?” Michelle asked, genuinely wanting to know but also hoping that whatever it was, it was a good enough reason as to why Orla ignored Michelle’s entire cheesy and gross halfway-finished speech. Orla furrowed her eyebrows, trying to find the right words in the jumbled mess of thoughts going through her brain. 

“It's just… Blaire.”

Orla’s eyes filled to the brim with tears, glossed over and searching the room, hoping that the pale girl would magically show up in her room and pull that stupid smirk she always does and sit down on her bed, staring out the window like she used to, as if there’s nothing more interesting in the world than watching old cars slowly drive down the road.

“I think I really, really messed up. She hasn’t talked to me since the trip and I don’t know if she ever will again.”

Minutes passed as Michelle witnessed Orla on the brink of breaking down into tears for the first time ever and as upsetting a sight as it was, it didn’t stop that burning in her chest that she was now growing accustomed to. The room grew eerily quiet, both girls trying to catch onto every thought racing through their minds. The sound of a car speeding by brought Michelle back and just as she wanted to do earlier, she bolted for the door, trying to get out as fast as she could. A swift pull of the door knob and she was half-way out the room in a flash but a slender hand stopped her, pulling the door back before it shut.

“Wait, what was it that you were trying to tell me?” Orla searched Michelle’s face, trying to figure out what had brought the girl to her room. Green eyes avoided Orla’s, lingering on the bracelet wrapped around the tall girl’s wrist.  
  


A bitter scoff was all Michelle gave in reply as she pulled her hand free from Orla’s grasp, shaking her head as she stomped away from the room. 

**Author's Note:**

> This my first ever fic I’m actually posting so be nice to me pls, I’m a sucker for the “mean girl falling for the ditzy idiot” pairing and I like this pairing so fight me okay, I have yet to see it anywhere else and now here I am, creating content because there is none, what a travesty.


End file.
